PHI 

.'  '<    i 


GREAT  GATE,  NIKKO. 


Bngelus  je&ttton 


TEXT-BOOKS  OF  THE 


gngelu*  Untoergitp  Course 

IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  WORLD'S 
GREATEST  NATIONS 


Historical  Tales 

The  Romance  of  Reality 

By 
PROF.  CHARLES  MORRIS 

Author  of  "Half-Hour*  with  the  Best  American  Author*,"  "Talet  from  the 
Dramatists,"  etc. 

Volume  XII 

anb  Cfnnese 


THE    ANGELUS    UNIVERSITY 

LOS   ANGELES.   CALIFORNIA 


COPTBIGHT,    1898,    BY  J.    B.    LlPPINCOTT   COMPANY. 

COPYRIGHT,  1904,  BY  J.  B.  LIPPINUOTT  (COMPANY. 

COFYBIGHT,    1908,    BY  J.   B.   LlPPINCOTT  COMPANV. 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

THE  FIRST  OF  THE  MIKADOS 5 

How  CIVILIZATION  CAME  TO  JAPAN       12 

YAMATO-DAKE,'  A  HERO  OP  ROMANCE 19 

JINGU,  THE  AMAZON  OP  JAPAN 27 

THE  DECLINE  OF  THE  MIKADOS 35 

How  THE  TAIRA  AND  THE  MINAMOTO  FOUGHT  FOR  POWER  41 

THE  BAYARD  OF  JAPAN 51 

THE  HOJO  TYRANNY 59 

THE  TARTAR  INVASION  OF  JAPAN 67 

NOBUNAGA  AND  THE  FALL  OF  THE  BUDDHISTS    ....  73 

How  A  PEASANT  BOY  BECAME  PREMIER 80 

THE  FOUNDER  OF  YEDO  AND  OF  MODERN  FEUDALISM  .  86 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIANITY  IN  JAPAN 97 

THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  CHRISTIANITY  IN  JAPAN    .  106 

THE  CAPTIVITY  OF  CAPTAIN  GOLOWNIN 113 

THE  OPENING  OF  JAPAN 123 

THE  MIKADO  COMES  TO  HIS  OWN  AGAIN 133 

How  THE  EMPIRE  OF  CHINA  AROSE  AND  GREW  ....  142 

CONFUCIUS,  THE  CHINESE  SAGE 150 

THE  FOUNDER  OF  THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE 156 

KAOTSOU  AND  THE  DYNASTY  OF  THE  HANS 172 

THE  EMPRESS  POISONER  OF  CHINA      180 

THE  INVASION  OF  THE  TARTAR  STEPPES 186 

THE  "CRIMSON  EYEBROWS" 192 

THE  CONQUEST  OF  CENTRAL  ASIA 197 

THE  SIEGE  OF  SINCHING        202 

FROM  THE  SHOEMAKER'S  BENCH  TO  THE  THRONB  .  .   .  205 

THREE  NOTABLE  WOMEN 212 

THE  REIGN  OF  TAITSONG  THE  GREAT    ........  217 

A  FEMALE  RICHELIEU 223 


2218700 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

THE  TARTARS  AND  GENGHIS  KHAN 228 

How  THE  FRIARS  FARED  AMONG  THE  TARTARS    ....  236 

THE  SIEGE  OP  SIANYANG 242 

THE  DEATH-STRUGGLE  OF  CHINA 249 

THE  PALACE  OF  KUBLAI  KHAN 255 

THE  EXPULSION  OF  THE  MONGOLS 264 

THE  RISE  OF  TEE  MANCHUS 272 

THE  MANCHU  CONQUEST  OF  CHINA 281 

THE  CAREER  OF  A  DESERT  CHIEF 290 

THE  RAID  OF  THE  GOORKHAS 299 

How  EUROPE  ENTERED  CHINA     306 

THE  BURNING  OF  THE  SUMMER  PALACE 315 

A  GREAT  CHRISTIAN  MOVEMENT  AND  ITS  FATE  ....  323 

COREA  AND  ITS  NEIGHBORS 330 

THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  IRON-CLADS 339 

PROGRESS  IN  JAPAN  AND  CHINA 347 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


JAPANESE  AND  CHINESE. 

FAGB 

GREAT  GATE,  NIKKO Frontispiece. 

FUJIYAMA 10 

SHUZENJI  VILLAGE,  IDZU 86 

FARMERS  PLANTING  RICE  SPROUTS,  JAPAN 52 

LETTER- WRITING  IN  JAPAN 63 

KARAMO  TEMPLE,  NIKKO 78 

RETURNING  FROM  MARKET,  JAPAN 98 

MAIN  STREET,  YOKOHAMA 108 

CHUSENJI  ROAD  AND  DAITA  RIVER 132 

A  CHINESE  IRRIGATION  WHEEL 165 

AN  ITINERANT  COBBLER,  CANTON,  CHINA 180 

A  CHINESE  PAGODA 197 

WATER  CART,  PEKIN,  CHINA 210 

SHANGHAI,  FROM  THE  WATER-SIDE 222 

MARKET  SCENE  IN  SHANGHAI 255 

CHINESE  GAMBLERS 281 

CHAIR  AND  CAGO  CARRIERS 306 

STREET  SCENE,  PEKIN,  CHINA. 318 

A  BRONZE- WORKER'S  SHOP 330 

THE  PEKIN  GATE.  .                                                         .  347 


THE  FIRST  OF  THE  MIKADOS. 

THE  year  1  in  Japan  is  the  same  date  as  660  B.C. 
of  the  Christian  era,  so  that  Japan  is  now  in  its 
twenty-sixth  century.  Then  everything  began.  Be- 
fore that  date  all  is  mystery  and  mythology.  After 
that  date  there  is  something  resembling  history, 
though  in  the  early  times  it  is  an  odd  mixture  of 
history  and  fable.  As  for  the  gods  of  ancient  Japan, 
they  were  many  in  number,  and  strange  stories  are 
told  of  their  doings.  Of  the  early  men  of  the  island 
kingdom  we  know  very  little.  When  the  ancestors 
of  the  present  Japanese  arrived  there  they  found 
the  islands  occupied  by  a  race  of  savages,  a  people 
thickly  covered  with  hair,  and  different  in  looks 
from  all  the  other  inhabitants  of  Asia.  These  in 
time  were  conquered,  and  only  a  few  of  them  now 
remain, — known  as  Ainos,  and  dwelling  in  the  island 
of  Yezo. 

In  the  Japanese  year  1  appeared  a  conqueror, 
Jimmu  Tenno  by  name,  the  first  of  the  mikados  or 
emperors.  He  was  descended  from  the  goddess  of 
the  Sun,  and  made  his  home  at  the  foot  of  Kiri- 
shima,  a  famous  mountain  in  the  island  of  Kiushiu, 
the  most  southerly  of  the  four  large  islands  of  Japan. 
As  to  the  smaller  islands  of  that  anchored  em- 
pire, it  may  be  well  to  say  that  they  form  a  vast 
multitude  of  all  shapes  and  sizes,  being  in  all  nearly 

6 


6  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

four  thousand  in  number.  The  Sea  of  Japan  is 
truly  a  sea  of  islands. 

By  way  of  the  sailing  clouds,  and  the  blue  sky 
which  rests  upon  Kirishima's  snowy  top,  the  gods 
stepped  down  from  heaven  to  earth.  Down  this  ce- 
lestial path  came  Jimmu's  ancestors,  of  whom  there 
were  four  between  him  and  the  mighty  Sun  goddess. 
Of  course  no  one  is  asked  to  accept  this  for  fact. 
Somewhat  too  many  of  the  fathers  of  nations  were 
sons  of  the  gods.  It  may  be  that  Jimnau  was  an  in- 
vader from  some  foreign  land,  or  came  from  a  band  of 
colonists  who  had  settled  at  the  mountain's  foot  some 
time  before,  but  the  gods  have  the  credit  of  his  origin. 

At  any  rate,  Hiuga,  as  the  region  in  which  he 
dwelt  was  called,  was  not  likely  to  serve  the  ends 
of  a  party  of  warlike  invaders,  there  being  no  part 
of  Japan  less  fertile.  So,  as  the  story  goes,  Jimmu, 
being  then  fifty  years  old,  set  out  to  conquer  some 
richer  realm.  He  had  only  a  few  followers,  some 
being  his  brothers,  the  others  his  retainers,  all  of 
them,  in  the  language  of  the  legends,  being  kami, 
or  gods.  Jimmu  was  righteous;  the  savages  were 
wicked,  though  they  too  had  descended  from  the  gods. 
These  savages  dwelt  in  villages,  each  governed  by 
a  head-man  or  chief.  They  fought  hard  for  their 
homes,  and  were  not  easily  driven  away. 

The  story  of  Jimmu's  exploits  is  given  in  the 
Kojiki,  or  "  Book  of  Ancient  Traditions,"  the  oldest 
book  of  Japan.  There  is  another,  called  the  Nihongi, 
nearly  as  old,  being  composed  in  720  A.D.  These 
give  us  all  that  is  known  of  the  ancient  history  of 
the  island,  but  are  so  full  of  myths  arid  fables  that 


THE   FIRST  OP   THE  MIKAD08.  7 

very  little  of  the  story  is  to  be  trusted.  Histories 
of  later  times  are  abundant,  and  form  the  most  im- 
portant part  of  the  voluminous  literature  of  Japan. 
The  islanders  are  proud  of  their  history,  and  have 
preserved  it  with  the  greatest  care,  the  annals  of 
cities  and  families  being  as  carefully  preserved  as 
those  of  the  state. 

Jimmu  the  conqueror,  as  his  story  is  told  in  the 
Kojiki,  met  strange  and  frightful  enemies  on  his 
march.  Among  them  were  troops  of  spiders  of 
colossal  size  and  frightful  aspect,  through  whose 
threatening  ranks  he  had  to  fight  his  way.  Eight- 
headed  serpents  had  also  to  be  dealt  with,  and  hos- 
tile deities — wicked  gods  who  loved  not  the  pious 
adventurer — disputed  his  path.  Some  of  these  he 
rid  himself  of  by  strength  of  arm  and  sharpness  of 
sword,  some  by  shrewdness  of  wit.  His  line  of 
march  lay  to  Usa,  in  the  district  of  Buzen ;  thence 
to  Okada,  where  he  took  ship  and  made  his  way 
through  the  windings  of  the  Suwo  Nada,  a  part  of 
the  Inland  Sea  of  Japan. 

Landing  in  Aki,  Jimmu  built  himself  a  palace, 
and  dwelt  there  for  seven  years,  after  which  he  sought 
the  region  of  Bizen,  where  for  eight  years  more  he 
lived  in  peace.  Then,  stirred  once  more  by  his  in- 
dwelling love  of  adventure,  he  took  to  the  sea  again 
with  his  faithful  band  and  sailed  to  the  eastward. 
Rough  waves  and  swift  currents  hero  disputed  his 
way,  and  it  was  with  difficulty  that  he  at  length 
landed  on  Hondo,  the  main  island  of  Japan,  near 
where  the  city  of  Osaka  now  stands.  He  named 
the  spot  Nami  Hay  a  ("  swift  waves"). 


8  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

Jiramu  Tenno,  the  name  of  the  conqueror,  means 
"  spirit  of  war,"  and  so  far  victory  had  perched  upon 
his  banners  as  he  marched.  But  now  defeat  came. 
The  people  of  the  great  island  fought  fiercely  for 
their  homes  and  liberties,  a  brother  of  Jimmu  was 
wounded,  and  he  and  his  band  of  followers  were 
driven  back  with  loss. 

The  gods  surely  had  something  to  do  with  this, — 
for  in  those  days  the  gods  were  thought  to  have  little 
to  do  besides  busying  themselves  with  the  affairs  of 
men, — and  the  cause  of  the  defeat  was  sought  by 
means  of  sacred  ceremonies  and  invocations.  It 
proved  to  be  an  odd  one.  The  legend  states  they 
had  offended  the  Sun  goddess  by  presuming  to  travel 
to  the  east,  instead  of  following  the  path  of  the  sun 
from  east  to  west.  This  insult  to  the  gods  could 
be  atoned  for  only  by  a  voyage  to  the  west.  Taking 
to  their  ships  again,  they  sailed  westward  around 
Kii,  and  landed  at  Arasaka. 

Jimmu  had  expiated  his  fault,  and  was  again  in 
favor  with  the  gods.  The  chief  whom  he  now  faced 
surrendered  without  a  blow,  and  presented  the  con- 
quering hero  with  a  sword.  A  picture  of  this  scene, 
famous  in  the  early  history  of  Japan,  is  printed  on 
one  of  the  Japanese  greenback  notes  issued  in  1872. 

The  victor  next  sought  the  mountain-defended 
land  of  Yamato,  which  was  to  be  reached  only  by 
difficult  mountain-passes,  unknown  to  the  chief  and 
his  followers.  But  the  gods  had  taken  him  in  charge 
and  came  to  his  aid,  sending  a  giant  crow,  whose 
wings  were  eight  feet  long,  to  guide  him  to  the 
fertile  soil  of  Yamato.  A  crow  with  smaller  spread 


THE   FIRST   OP   THE    MIKADOS.  9 

of  wing  might  have  done  the  work  as  well,  but  would 
have  been  less  satisfactory  to  the  legend-makers. 

Fierce  was  the  conflict  now  impending,  and  stern 
the  struggle  of  the  natives  for  life  and  liberty. 
Here  were  no  peaceful  chiefs,  like  the  one  met  at 
Arasaka,  and  only  by  dint  of  trenchant  blows  was 
the  land  to  be  won.  On  went  the  fight,  victory  now 
inclining  to  one  side,  now  to  the  other,  until  in  the 
midst  of  the  uncertain  struggle  the  gods  sent  down  a 
deep  and  dark  cloud,  in  whose  thick  shadow  no  man 
could  see  his  foe,  and  the  strife  was  stayed.  Sud- 
denly, through  the  dense  darkness,  a  bird  in  the 
shape  of  a  hawk  came  swooping  down  from  the 
skies,  enveloped  in  a  flood  of  golden  light,  and,  dis- 
persing the  cloud,  rested  upon  the  hero's  bow.  The 
light  shed  by  his  refulgent  wings  struck  like  the 
glare  of  lightning  upon  the  eyes  of  the  enemy,  so 
dazzling  them  with  its  radiance  that  they  broke  into 
panic  flight. 

A  victory  gained  in  such  a  fashion  as  this  does  not 
seem  quite  satisfactory  to  modern  ideas.  It  is  not  fair 
to  the  other  side.  Yet  it  was  in  this  way  that  the 
Greeks  won  victory  on  the  plains  of  Troy,  and  that 
many  other  legendary  victories  were  obtained.  One 
cannot  help  wishing  that  the  event  of  battle  had 
been  left  to  the  decision  of  brave  hearts  and  strong 
hands,  instead  of  depending  upon  the  interposition 
of  the  gods.  But  such  was  the  ancient  way, — if  we 
choose  to  take  legend  for  truth, — and  we  must  needs 
receive  what  is  given  us,  in  default  of  better. 

At  any  rate,  Jimmu  was  now  lord  of  the  land,  and 
built  himself  a  capital  city  at  Kashivvabara,  near  the 


10  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

site  of  the  modern  Kioto,  from  which  he  governed 
the  wide  realms  that  the  sword  had  made  his  own. 
The  gods  were  thanked  for  their  aid  by  imposing 
religious  ceremonies,  and  the  people  rejoiced  in  the 
peace  that  had  come  upon  the  land.  The  soldiers 
who  had  followed  the  hero  to  victory  were  amply 
rewarded,  and  his  chiefs  made  lords  of  provinces, 
for  the  control  over  which  they  were  to  pay  in  mili- 
tary service.  Thus  early  a  form  of  feudal  govern- 
ment was  established  in  Japan. 

All  being  now  at  peace  within  the  realm,  the 
weapons  of  war  were  hung  up  in  home  and  temple, 
sacrifices  were  offered  to  the  goddess  of  the  Sun,  and 
the  three  sacred  emblems  of  the  new  kingdom,  the 
mirror,  the  sword,  and  the  ball,  were  deposited  with 
solemn  ceremonies  in  the  palace  of  the  emperor. 

The  remainder  of  Jimmu's  story  may  be  briefly 
told.  He  took  for  bride  the  princess  Tatara,  the 
daughter  of  one  of  his  chiefs,  and  the  most  beautiful 
woman  in  all  the  land.  The  rest  of  his  life  was 
spent  in  strengthening  his  rule  and  extending  the 
arts  of  civilization  throughout  his  realm.  Finally 
he  died,  one  hundred  and  thirty-seven  years  old,  as 
the  Kojiki  states,  leaving  three  children,  one  of 
whom  he  had  chosen  as  the  heir  of  the  throne. 

That  there  was  an  actual  Jimmu  Tenno  is  more 
than  any  one  can  say.  Of  course  the  crow  and  kite, 
serpents  and  spiders,  are  myths,  transformed,  per- 
haps, from  some  real  incidents  in  his  career,  and  the 
gods  that  helped  and  hindered  were  doubtless  born 
in  men's  fancies  in  later  days. 

The  Chinese  have  their  story  of  how  Japan  was 


THE   FIRST   OP   THE  MIKADOS.  11 

settled.  Taiko,  grandfather  of  the  first  emperor  of 
the  Shu  dynasty,  had  three  sons,  and,  loving  the 
youngest  most,  wished  to  leave  him  his  title  and 
estate.  These  by  law  and  custom  belonged  to  the 
eldest,  and  the  generous  young  prince,  not  wishing 
to  injure  his  brother,  secretly  left  home  and  sailed  to 
the  south.  Leaving  Southern  China  with  a  colony, 
he  landed  in  Japan.  This  took  place  about  forty-six 
years  before  the  beginning  of  Jimmu's  conquering 
career,  so  that  the  dates,  at  least,  agree. 

Whether  there  ever  was  a  Jimmu  or  not,  the 
Japanese  firmly  believe  in  him.  He  stands  on  the 
list  as  the  first  of  the  mikados,  and  the  reigning 
emperor  claims  unbroken  descent  from  him.  April 
7  is  looked  upon  as  the  anniversary  of  his  ac- 
cession to  the  throne,  and  is  the  Japanese  national 
holiday,  which  is  observed  with  public  rejoicings  and 
military  and  naval  salutes.  The  year  1  was  the 
year  in  which  Jimmu  ascended  the  throne. 


HOW  CIVILIZATION  CAME  TO 
JAPAN: 

THERE  is  not  much  of  absorbing  interest  in  early 
Japanese  history.  For  a  period  of  some  twelve  hun- 
dred years  nearly  all  that  we  know  of  the  mikados 
is  that  they  "  lived  long  and  died  happy."  No  fewer 
than  twelve  of  these  patriarchs  lived  to  be  over  one 
hundred  years  old,  and  one  held  the  throne  for  one 
hundred  and  one  years.  But  they  were  far  surpassed 
in  longevity  by  a  statesman  named  Takenouchi,  who 
served  five  mikados  as  prime  minister  and  dwelt 
upon  the  earth  for  more  than  three  hundred  and 
fifty  years.  There  was  not  much  "  rotation  in  office" 
in  those  venerable  times. 

We  must  come  down  for  six  hundred  years  from 
the  days  of  Jimmu  to  find  an  emperor  who  made 
any  history  worth  the  telling.  In  truth,  a  mist  of 
fable  lies  over  all  the  works  of  these  ancient  wor- 
thies, and  in  telling  their  stories  we  can  never  be 
sure  how  much  of  them  is  true.  Very  likely  there 
is  sound  history  at  the  bottom,  but  it  is  ornamented 
•with  a  good  deal  that  it  is  not  safe  to  believe. 

The  first  personage  after  Jimmu  upon  whom  we 

need  dwell  was  a  wise  and  worthy  mikado  named 

Sujin,  who  spent  his  days  in  civilizing  his  people, 

probably  no  easy  task.     The  gap  of  six  centuries 

12 


HOW   CIVILIZATION   CAME   TO   JAPAN.  13 

between  Jimmu's  time  and  his  had,  no  doubt,  its 
interesting  events,  but  none  of  particular  importance 
are  upon  record. 

As  a  boy  Sujin  displayed  courage  and  energy, 
together  with  the  deepest  piety.  As  a  man  he 
mourned  over  the  sinfulness  of  his  people,  and  earn- 
estly begged  them  to  give  up  their  wicked  ways  and 
turn  from  sin  to  the  worship  of  the  gods.  He  was  not 
at  first  very  successful.  The  people  were  steeped  in 
iniquity,  and  continued  so  until  a  pestilence  was  sent 
to  change  the  current  of  their  sinful  thoughts. 

The  pious  monarch  called  upon  the  gods  to  stay 
the  plague,  doing  penance  by  rising  early,  fasting, 
and  bathing, — possibly  an  unusual  ceremony  in  those 
days.  The  gods  at  length  heard  the  voice  of  the 
king,  and  the  pestilence  ceased.  It  had  done  its 
work.  The  people  were  convinced  of  the  error  of 
their  ways  and  turned  from  wantonness  to  worship, 
and  everywhere  religious  feeling  revived. 

As  yet  Japan  possessed  no  temples  or  shrines,  all 
worship  being  conducted  in  the  open  air.  The  three 
holy  emblems  of  the  nation,  the  mirror,  the  sword, 
and  the  ball,  had  thus  far  been  kept  within  the  pal- 
ace. Wherever  they  were  the  divine  power  dwelt, 
and  the  mikado,  living  within  their  influence,  was 
looked  upon  as  equal  to  a  god. 

But  the  deities  taught  Sujin — or  at  least  he 
thought  they  did — that  this  was  not  the  proper  place 
for  them.  A  rebellion  broke  out,  due,  doubtless,  to 
the  evil  spirit  of  men,  but  arising,  in  his  opinion, 
from  the  displeasure  of  the  gods,  who  were  not 
pleased  with  his  keeping  these  sacred  objects  under 


14  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

his  own  roof,  where  they  might  he  defiled  by  the 
unholiness  of  man.  He  determined,  therefore,  to 
provide  for  them  a  home  of  their  own,  and  to  do  so 
built  the  first  temple  in  his  realm.  The  sacred  sym- 
bols were  placed  under  the  care  of  his  daughter,  who 
was  appointed  priestess  of  the  shrine.  From  that 
day  to  this  a  virgin  princess  of  imperial  blood  has 
been  chosen  as  custodian  of  these  emblems  of  deific 
power  and  presence. 

The  first  temple  was  built  at  Kasanui,  a  village  in 
Yamato.  But  the  goddess  Amaterasu  warned  the 
priestess  that  this  locality  was  not  sufficiently  holy, 
so  she  set  off  with  the  mirror  in  search  of  a  place 
more  to  the  taste  of  the  gods,  carrying  it  from 
province  to  province,  until  old  age  overtook  her,  yet 
finding  no  spot  that  reflected  the  clear  light  of  holi- 
ness from  the  surface  of  the  sacred  mirror.  Another 
priestess  took  up  the  task,  many  places  were  chosen 
and  abandoned,  and  finally,  in  4  A.D.,  the  shrine  of 
Uji,  in  Ise,  was  selected.  This  apparently  has  proved 
satisfactory  to  the  deities  of  Japan,  for  the  emblems 
of  their  divinity  still  rest  in  this  sacred  shrine.  Sujin 
had  copies  made  of  the  mirror  and  the  sword,  which 
were  kept  in  the  "place  of  reverence,"  a  separate 
building  within  the  palace.  From  this  arose  the 
imperial  chapel,  which  still  exists  within  the  palace 
bounds. 

"We  speak  of  the  "  palace"  of  the  mikado,  but  we 
must  warn  our  readers  not  to  associate  ideas  of 
splendor  or  magnificence  with  this  word.  The  Em- 
peror of  Japan  dwells  not  in  grandeur,  but  in  sim- 
plicity. From  the  earliest  times  the  house  of  the 


HOW   CIVILIZATION   CAME   TO   JAPAN.  15 

emperor  has  resembled  a  temple  rather  than  a  pal- 
ace. The  mikado  is  himself  half  a  god  in  Japanese 
eyes,  and  is  expected  to  be  content  with  the  simple 
and  austere  surroundings  of  the  images  of  the  gods. 
There  are  no  stateliness,  no  undue  ornament,  no 
gaudy  display  such  as  minor  mortals  may  delight  in. 
Dignified  simplicity  surrounds  the  imperial  person, 
and  when  he  dies  he  is  interred  in  the  simplest  of 
tombs,  wonderfully  unlike  the  gorgeous  burial-places 
in  which  the  bodies  of  the  monarchs  of  continental 
Asia  lie  in  state. 

When  Sujin  came  to  the  throne  the  people  of 
Japan  were  still  in  a  state  of  barbarism,  and  there 
was  scarce  a  custom  in  the  state  that  did  not  call  for 
reform.  A  new  and  better  system  of  arranging  the 
periods  of  time  was  established,  the  year  being 
divided  into  twenty-four  months  or  periods,  which 
bear  such  significant  names  as  "  Beginning  of  Spring," 
"Rain-water,"  "Awakening  of  the  Insects,"  "Clear 
Weather,"  "  Seed-rain,"  etc.  A  census  was  ordered 
to  be  taken  at  regular  intervals,  and  by  way  of  taxa- 
tion all  persons,  men  and  women  alike,  were  obliged 
to  work  for  the  government  for  a  certain  number 
of  days  each  year. 

To  promote  commerce,  the  building  of  boats  was 
encouraged,  and  regular  communication  was  opened 
with  Corea,  from  which  country  many  useful  ideas 
and  methods  were  introduced  into  Japan.  Even  a 
prince  of  one  of  the  provinces  of  Corea  came  to  the 
island  empire  to  live.  Agriculture  was  greatly  de- 
veloped by  Sujin,  canals  being  dug  and  irrigation  ex- 
tensively provided  for.  Rice,  the  leading  article  of 


16  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

food,  needs  to  be  grown  in  well-watered  fields,  and 
the  stealing  of  water  from  a  neighbor's  field  is  looked 
upon  as  a  crime  of  deepest  dye.  In  old  times  the 
water-thief  was  dealt  with  much  as  the  horse-thief 
was  recently  dealt  with  in  some  parts  of  our  own 
country. 

Sujin's  work  was  continued  by  his  successor,  who, 
in  6  A.D.,  ordered  canals  and  sluices  to  be  dug  in 
more  than  eight  hundred  places.  At  present  Japan 
has  great  irrigating  reservoirs  and  canals,  through 
which  the  water  is  led  for  miles  to  the  farmers'  fields. 
In  one  mountain  region  is  a  deep  lake  of  pure  water, 
five  thousand  feet  above  the  sea.  Many  centuries 
ago  a  tunnel  was  made  to  draw  off  this  water,  and 
millions  of  acres  of  soil  are  still  enriched  by  its  fer- 
tilizing flood.  Such  are  some  of  the  results  of  Sujin's 
wise  reforms. 

Another  of  the  labors  of  Sujin  the  civilizer  was  to 
devise  a  military  system  for  the  defence  of  his  realm. 
In  the  north,  the  savage  Ainos  still  fought  for  the 
land  which  had  once  been  all  their  own,  and  between 
them  and  the  subjects  of  the  mikado  border  warfare 
rarely  ceased.  Sujin  divided  the  empire  into  four 
military  departments,  with  a  shogun,  or  general,  over 
each.  At  a  later  date  military  magazines  were  es- 
tablished, where  weapons  and  rations  could  be  had 
at  any  time  in  case  of  invasion  by  the  wild  tribes 
on  the  border  or  of  rebellion  within  the  realm.  In 
time  a  powerful  military  class  arose,  and  war  became 
a  profession  in  Japan.  Throughout  the  history  of  the 
island  kingdom  the  war  spirit  has  been  kept  alive, 
and  Japan  is  to-day  the  one  nation  of  Eastern  Asia 


HOW   CIVILIZATION   CAME   TO   JAPAN.  17 

with  a  love  of  and  a  genius  for  warlike  deeds.  So 
important  grew  the  shoguns  in  time  that  nearly  all 
the  power  of  the  empire  fell  into  their  hands,  and 
when  the  country  was  opened  to  foreign  nations, 
one  of  these,  calling  himself  the  Tai  Kun  (Tycoon), 
posed  as  the  emperor  himself,  the  mikado  being  lost 
to  sight  behind  the  authority  of  this  military  chief. 

At  length  old  age  began  to  weigh  heavily  upon 
Sujin,  and  the  question  of  who  should  succeed  him 
on  the  throne  greatly  troubled  his  imperial  mind. 
He  had  two  sons,  but  his  love  for  them  was  so  equally 
divided  that  he  could  not  choose  between  their 
claims.  In  those  days  the  heirship  to  the  throne 
seems  to  have  depended  upon  the  father's  will.  Not 
being  able  to  decide  for  himself,  he  appealed  to  fate 
or  divination,  asking  his  sons  one  evening  to  tell  him 
the  next  morning  what  they  had  dreamed  during  the 
night.  On  their  dreams  he  would  base  his  decision. 

The  young  princes  washed  their  bodies  and 
changed  their  clothes, — seemingly  a  religious  rite. 
Visions  came  to  them  during  the  still  watches  of  the 
night,  and  the  next  morning  they  eagerly  told  their 
father  what  dreams  the  gods  had  sent. 

"  I  dreamed  that  I  climbed  a  mountain,"  said  the 
elder,  "and  on  reaching  its  summit  I  faced  the  east, 
and  eight  times  I  cut  with  the  sword  and  thrust 
with  the  spear." 

"  I  climbed  the  same  mountain,"  said  the  younger, 
"and  stretched  snares  of  cords  on  every  side,  seek- 
ing to  catch  the  sparrows  that  destroy  the  grain." 

The  emperor  listened  intently,  and  thus  sagely  in- 
terpreted the  visions  of  his  sons. 
2 


18  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

"  You,  my  son,"  he  said  to  the  elder,  "  looked  in 
one  direction.  You  will  go  to  the  east  and  become 
its  governor.  You  looked  in  every  direction,"  he 
said  to  the  younger.  "  You  will  govern  on  all  sides. 
The  gods  have  selected  you  as  my  heir." 

His  words  came  true.  The  younger  became  ruler 
over  all  the  land ;  the  elder  became  a  warrior  in  the 
east  and  governor  over  its  people. 

And  Sujin  the  civilizer,  having  lived  long  and 
ruled  wisely,  was  gathered  to  his  fathers,  and  slept 
death's  dreamless  sleep. 


YAMATO-DAKE,  A  HERO  OF 
ROMANCE. 

WE  have  now  to  deal  with  the  principal  hero  of 
Japanese  legend,  Yamato-Dake,  the  conqueror.  His 
story  is  full  of  myth  and  fable,  but  there  is  history 
in  it,  too,  and  it  is  well  worth  the  telling.  Every 
ancient  nation  has  its  legendary  hero,  who  performs 
wonderful  feats,  dares  fearful  perils,  and  has  not 
only  the  strength  of  man  but  the  power  of  magic 
and  the  wiles  of  evil  spirits  to  contend  against.  We 
give  the  story  as  it  stands,  with  all  its  adventures 
and  supernatural  incidents. 

This  Japanese  hero  of  romance,  born  71  A.D.,  was 
the  son  of  Keiko,  the  twelfth  in  line  of  the  mikados. 
In  form  he  was  manly  and  graceful,  fair  of  aspect, 
and  of  handsome  and  engaging  presence.  While 
still  a  youth  he  led  an  army  to  Kiushiu,  in  which 
island  a  rebellion  had  broken  out.  In  order  to  enter 
the  camp  of  the  rebel  force,  he  disguised  himself  as 
a  dancing-girl,  a  character  which  his  beardless  face 
and  well-rounded  figure  enabled  him  easily  to  assume. 
Presenting  himself  before  the  sentinel,  his  beauty  of 
face  and  form  disarmed  the  soldier  of  all  doubt,  and 
he  led  the  seeming  damsel  to  the  presence  of  the 
rebel  chief,  from  whom  he  hoped  for  a  rich  reward. 

Here  the  visitor  danced  before  the  chief  and  his 

19 


20  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

guests  with  such  winning  grace  that  they  were  all 
captivated,  and  at  the  end  of  the  dance  the  delighted 
chief  seized  his  prize  by  the  hand  and  drew  the 
seemingly  coy  damsel  into  his  own  tent.  Once  within 
its  folds,  the  yielding  girl  suddenly  changed  into  a 
heroic  youth  who  clasped  the  rebel  with  a  vigorous 
embrace  and  slew  him  on  the  spot.  For  this  ex- 
ploit the  youthful  prince  received  his  title  of  Yamato- 
Dake,  or  "  Yamato  the  Warlike." 

Thirteen  years  later  a  revolt  broke  out  among  the 
wild  tribes  of  Eastern  Japan,  and  the  young  hero 
marched  with  an  army  to  subdue  them.  His  route 
led  him  past  the  shrine  of  the  Sun  goddess,  in  Ise, 
and  here  the  priestess  presented  him  with  the  sacred 
sword,  one  of  the  holy  emblems  of  the  realm.  His 
own  sword  was  left  under  a  neighboring  pine. 

Armed  with  this  magical  blade,  he  continued  his 
march  into  the  wilds  of  Suruga,  the  haunt  of  the  in- 
surgent Ainos.  But  he  found  it  no  easy  matter  to 
bring  these  savage  foes  to  an  open  fight.  Fleeing 
before  his  army  into  the  woods  and  mountains,  they 
fought  him  from  behind  rocks  and  trees,  it  being 
their  policy  of  warfare  to  inflict  damage  upon  the 
enemy  with  as  little  loss  as  possible  to  themselves. 
Like  the  American  Indians,  these  savages  were  used 
to  all  the  forest  wiles,  quick  to  avail  themselves  of 
every  sound  or  sign,  able  to  make  their  way  with 
ease  through  tangled  thickets  and  pathless  forests, 
and  adepts  in  all  the  lore  of  wood  and  wild. 

As  the  army  of  Yamato  pressed  them  too  closely, 
they  set  fire  to  the  dry  underbrush  which  densely 
surrounded  their  lurking-place.  The  high  wind  car- 


TAMATO-DAKf ,  A   HERO   OF  ROMANCE.  21 

ried  the  flames  in  roaring  waves  towards  the  Jap- 
anese army,  which  was  in  the  most  serious  danger, 
for  it  was  encamped  amid  tall,  dry  grass,  which 
quickly  became  a  sea  of  soaring  flame.  With  yells 
of  delight  the  Ainos  gazed  upon  the  imminent  peril 
of  their  foes ;  but  suddenly  their  exultation  was 
changed  to  dismay.  For  at  this  moment  of  danger 
the  Sun  goddess  appeared  to  Yamato,  and  at  her  sug- 
gestion he  drew  the  sacred  sword — Murakumo,  or 
"  Cloud  Cluster" — and  cut  the  grass  that  thickly 
rose  around  him.  Before  the  magic  of  the  blade 
fire  itself  was  powerless,  and  the  advancing  flames 
turned  and  swept  towards  the  enemy,  many  of  whom 
were  consumed,  while  the  others  fled  in  panic  fear. 
Grateful  to  the  gods  for  this  timely  aid,  the  hero 
changed  the  name  of  the  sword,  decreeing  that 
thenceforth  it  should  be  known  as  Kusanagi,  or 
"  Grass-Mower." 

His  route  now  led,  by  a  mountain  pathway,  into 
the  great  plain  of  Eastern  Japan,  afterwards  known 
as  the  Kuanto,  which  extends  from  the  central 
ranges  to  the  Pacific  coast.  Beaching  the  shores  of 
the  Bay  of  Yedo,  he  looked  across  from  its  southern 
headland  to  the  opposite  peninsula  of  Awa,  whose 
hills  seemed  very  close  at  hand. 

"  It  will  be  easy  to  cross  that  channel,"  he  said : 
"  it  is  but  a  trifle.  Let  the  army  embark." 

He  did  not  know  how  treacherous  was  the  navi- 
gation of  this  strait,  whose  weather  is  never  to  be 
trusted,  and  whose  winds,  tides,  and  currents  are 
baffling  and  perilous.  Embarking  with  his  follow- 
ers, he  looked  for  an  easy  and  rapid  progress;  but 


22  HISTORICAL  TALES. 

a  terrible  storm  arose,  tossing  the  boats  so  frightfully 
that  death  seemed  their  sure  fate. 

Yamato  was  not  at  a  loss  to  know  what  was 
amiss.  He  was  familiar  with  the  ways  of  the  gods, 
and  knew  that  some  hostile  deity  was  at  work  to 
ruin  him.  His  contemptuous  remark  about  the  ease 
of  the  passage  had  given  deep  offence  to  the  Japan- 
ese Neptune,  the  god  of  the  Sea,  who  was  punish- 
ing him  for  his  lack  of  reverence.  There  was  only 
one  way  by  which  the  angry  deity  might  be  ap- 
peased,— the  sacrifice  of  a  victim  to  his  wrath.  But 
who  among  them  was  ready  to  yield  life  for  duty? 
The  question  was  answered  by  Tachibana,  the  youth- 
ful wife  of  the  chief,  who  was  in  the  boat  with  her 
lord.  With  a  hurried  farewell,  the  devoted  woman 
sprang  into  the  wild  waves,  which  in  a  moment 
swept  her  far  away.  It  was  an  acceptable  sacrifice. 
The  winds  fell,  the  waves  went  down,  the  clouds 
broke,  and  soon  the  sun  was  serenely  shining  on 
ruffled  sea  and  tranquil  shore. 

All  that  Yamato  saw  again  pertaining  to  his 
wife  was  her  perfumed  wooden  comb,  which  floated 
ashore  and  was  dedicated  by  him  as  a  precious  relic 
in  a  shrine  which  he  built  to  the  gods.  A  shrine 
still  stands  on  the  spot,  which  is  within  the  modern 
city  of  Tokio,  and  there  to-day  fishermen  and 
sailors  worship  the  spirits  of  Yamato  and  his  sainted 
wife. 

Thence  the  hero  sailed  along  the  shore,  subduing 
the  tribes  as  he  went,  until  the  northern  boundary 
of  the  empire  was  reached.  Here  the  leaders  of  the 
Ainos  had  gathered  a  great  army  to  repel  the  in- 


YAMATO-DAKE,  A   HERO   OF   ROMANCE.  23 

vader.  But  on  seeing  the  ships,  which  were  new 
objects  to  their  eyes,  awe  and  consternation  over- 
whelmed them. 

"They  are  living  things,"  they  said, — "strange 
moving  monsters  who  glide  over  the  sea  and  bring 
our  foes  to  our  undoing.  The  gods  must  have  sent 
them,  and  will  destroy  us  if  we  draw  bow  against 
these  works  of  their  hands." 

Throwing  down  their  arms,  they  surrendered  to 
Yamato  when  he  sprang  ashore,  and  agreed  to  pay 
tribute  to  the  state.  Taking  their  leaders  as  host- 
ages for  their  good  conduct,  the  hero  turned  home- 
ward, eager  to  reach  again  the  capital  from  which 
he  had  been  so  long  away.  His  route  was  now 
overland,  and  to  entertain  himself  on  the  long 
journey  he  invented  a  form  of  poetic  verse  which 
is  still  much  in  use  by  the  poets  of  Japan. 

As  yet  all  his  work  had  been  done  on  the  plain 
near  the  shores  of  the  sea.  Now,  marching  inland, 
he  ascended  to  the  great  table-land  of  Shinano, 
from  twenty-five  hundred  to  five  thousand  feet  above 
the  sea,  around  and  within  which  lie  the  loftiest 
mountains  of  Japan.  From  this  height  could  be 
obtained  a  magnificent  view  of  the  Bay  of  Yedo,  the 
leafy  plains  surrounding,  and  the  wide-extending 
ocean.  Japan  has  no  more  beautiful  scene,  and 
Yamato  stood  silently  gazing  over  its  broad  ex- 
panse, the  memory  of  his  beloved  wife,  who  had 
given  her  life  for  his,  coming  back  to  him  as  he 
gazed.  "  Adzuma,  adzuma"  ("  my  wife,  my  wife"), 
fell  in  sad  accents  from  his  lips.  These  words  still 
haunt  that  land.  In  the  poet's  verse  that  broad  plain 


24  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

is  to-day  called  Adzuma,  and  one  of  the  great  ships 
of  the  new  navy  of  Japan  is  named  Adzuma  kuan. 

It  was  no  light  task  which  now  lay  before  the 
army  and  its  chief.  Even  to-day  the  mountains  of 
Shinano  are  far  from  easy  to  cross.  Then  they  were 
unknown,  and  their  crossing  was  a  work  of  the 
greatest  difficulty  and  risk.  There  were  rocky  defiles 
and  steep  ascents  to  climb,  river  torrents  to  pass, 
rugged  paths  to  mount,  without  a  road  to  follow  or 
a  guide  to  conduct,  and  with  clouds  and  fogs  to 
double  the  dangers  of  the  way.  Here,  to  their  fancy, 
in  caves  and  ravines  hostile  spirits  lurked ;  every 
mountain  had  its  tutelary  god ;  at  every  step  the 
deities  of  good  and  evil  seemed  to  be  at  strife  for 
their  destiny,  and  with  all  the  perils  of  the  way  the 
gods  were  thought  to  have  something  to  do. 

Thus  on  one  day  the  god  of  the  mountain  came  to 
Yamato  in  the  form  of  a  white  deer,  with  purpose  to 
work  him  evil.  The  hero,  on  the  alert  against  the 
hostile  spirits,  threw  wild  garlic  in  tne  animal's  eyes, 
causing  so  violent  a  smarting  pain  that  it  died.  At 
once  a  dense  mist  descended  upon  the  hill-slopes  and 
the  path  vanished,  leaving  the  army  to  grope  onward 
in  danger  and  dismay.  But  at  this  moment  of  dread 
a  white  dog  appeared — a  god  again,  but  a  friendly 
one  this  time — who  led  the  bewildered  soldiers  in 
safety  to  the  plains  of  Mino. 

But  they  were  not  jot  free  from  the  wiles  of  the 
white  deer.  Its  spirit  now  appeared,  discharging 
among  them  poisonous  gases,  before  whose  stupefying 
influence  they  fell  helpless  to  the  ground.  The  wild 
garlic  again  was  their  salvation.  Some  one  ate  of  it 


YAMATO-DAKE,  A   HERO   OF   ROMANCE.  25 

with  happy  effect,  and  gave  it  to  all  the  men  and 
animals,  so  that  all  got  well  again.  Wild  garlic  is 
still  looked  upon  in  Japan  as  a  specific  against  dis- 
ease and  as  a  safeguard  against  witches.  For  this 
purpose  it  is  hung  up  before  gates  and  doorways  in 
times  of  epidemic  or  superstitious  fear. 

The  hero  next  came  to  Ibuki  yama,  a  cone-shaped 
mountain  whose  flattened  summit  seemed  to  pierce 
the  skies.  Here  too  dwelt  a  hostile  spirit,  who  dis- 
puted the  way,  and  against  whom  Yamato  advanced 
unarmed,  leaving  his  sword,  "  Grass-Mower,"  under 
a  tree  at  the  mountain's  foot.  The  gods  of  Japan, 
perhaps,  were  proof  .against  weapons  of  steel.  Not 
far  had  the  hero  gone  before  the  deity  appeared 
upon  his  path,  transformed  into  a  threatening  ser- 
pent. Leaping  over  it,  he  pursued  his  way.  But 
now  the  incensed  deity  flung  darkness  on  the  moun- 
tain's breast,  and  the  hero,  losing  bis  path,  swooned 
and  fell.  Fortunately,  a  spring  of  healing  water 
bubbled  beside  him,  a  drink  from  which  enabled  him 
to  lift  his  head.  Onward  he  went,  still  feeble,  for 
the  breath  of  the  serpent  god  was  potent  for  ill, 
and  at  length  reached  Otsu,  in  the  district  of  Ise, 
where,  under  the  pine-tree,  he  found  the  sword 
which  he  had  left  there  on  setting  out,  three  years 
before.  His  gladness  found  vent  in  a  poem  com- 
posed of  these  words:  "O  pine,  if  you  were  a  man, 
I  should  give  you  this  sword  to  wear  for  your 
fidelity." 

The  conquering  prince  was  now  near  the  end  of 
his  career.  Still  sick  unto  death  from  his  adven- 
ture upon  the  mountain,  he  told  before  the  shrine 


26  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

of  the  gods  the  tale  of  his  victories  and  perils,  offered 
to  them  his  weapons  and  prisoners,  and  thanked 
them  piously  for  their  care.  Then  he  sent  a  report 
of  his  doings  to  his  father,  the  mikado,  and  begged 
to  see  him.  Keiko,  the  father,  sent  a  messenger  with 
words  of  comfort,  but  when  he  arrived  the  heroic 
Yamato-Dake  was  dead. 

He  was  buried  near  where  he  died,  and  from  his 
tomb  a  white  bird  was  seen  to  fly.  On  opening  the 
tomb  nothing  was  found  but  the  dead  hero's  chaplet 
and  robes.  The  place  where  the  bird  was  seen  to 
alight  bears  still  a  name  signifying  Imperial  Tomb 
of  the  White  Bird.  Thus  ended  the  career  of  the 
leading  Japanese  hero  of  romance.  His  story  sounds 
like  a  fairy-tale,  though  it  may  well  be  that  Yamato- 
Dake  was  a  real  person  and  that  many  of  the  things 
told  of  him  actually  occurred. 


JINGU,     THE    AMAZON    OF 
JAPAN. 

TO-DAY  the  women  of  Japan  are  kept  in  seclusion 
and  take  no  part  in  affairs  of  state.  This  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  always  the  case.  In  the  far  past, 
we  are  told,  women  often  rose  to  posts  of  honor  and 
dignity,  and  some  even  filled  the  mikado's  throne. 
Nor  is  this  all.  To  a  woman  is  given  the  glory  of 
the  greatest  event  in  the  histor.y  of  ancient  Japan, 
the  conquest  of  Corea,  from  which  land  civilization, 
literature,  and  a  new  religion  subsequently  came  to 
the  island  realm. 

The  name  of  this  Japanese  heroine  was  Okinaga 
Tarashi  hime,  but  she  is  best  known  under  the  title  of 
Jingu,  or  "  warlike  deed."  The  character  given  her 
in  tradition  is  an  attractive  one,  combining  beauty, 
piety,  intelligence,  energy,  and  valor.  The  waves 
of  the  sea,  the  perils  of  the  battle-field,  and  the  toils 
or  terrors  of  war  alike  failed  to  fill  the  soul  of  this 
heroine  with  fear,  and  the  gods  marched  with  her 
and  aided  her  in  her  enterprises.  Great  as  she  was 
in  herself,  the  Japanese  give  her  higher  honor  still, 
as  the  mother  of  their  god  of  war. 

This  imperial  Amazon  was  the  wife  of  the  mikado 
Chinai,  who  in  193  A.D.  set  out  at  the  head  of  his 
army  for  Kiushiu,  a  rebellion  having  broken  out  at 
Kumaso,  in  that  island.  His  courageous  wife  took 

27 


28  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

ship  and  followed  him  to  the  seat  of  war.  On  he> 
voyage  thither  she  stopped  at  one  of  the  islands  of 
the  Inland  Sea  to  offer  worship  to  the  gods.  And 
as  she  did  so  the  voice  of  the  deity  of  the  shrine 
came  to  her  ears. 

"Why  do  you  trouble  yourself  to  conquer  Ku- 
maso?"  spoke  the  mysterious  voice.  "It  is  but  a 
poor  and  barren  spot,  not  worth  your  labor  nor  the 
work  of  your  army.  There  is  a  country,  larger  and 
richer  by  far,  a  land  as  lovely  as  the  face  of  a  fair 
virgin,  dazzlingly  bright  with  gold,  silver,  and  rare 
colors,  and  rich  with  treasures  of  every  kind.  Such 
a  noble  region  is  Shiraki  [Corea].  Continue  to  wor- 
ship me,  and  this  rich  land  shall  be  yours  without 
the  shedding  of  blood.  As  for  Kumaso,  my  help 
and  the  glory  of  your  conquest  will  cause  it  to 
yield." 

On  joining  the  emperor,  Jingu  repeated  to  him 
the  words  of  the  god,  but  she  found  in  him  a  doubt- 
ing listener.  There  was  a  high  mountain  near  the 
camp,  and  to  the  summit  of  this  he  ch'mbed  and 
looked  far  out  over  the  westward  sea.  No  land  was 
visible  to  his  eyes  where  she  had  declared  the  rich 
realm  of  Shiraki  lay,  and  he  was  confirmed  in  his 
doubts.  On  returning  to  her  he  said, — 

"  I  looked  everywhere,  and  saw  water  alone ;  no 
land  was  to  be  seen.  Is  there  a  country  in  the  sky  ? 
If  not,  your  words  are  false.  And  my  ancestors 
worshipped  all  the  gods ;  or  if  there  are  any  they  did 
not  worship,  I  know  them  not.  Why,  then,  should 
they  not  speak  to  me  ?" 

"  If  you  credit  only  your  doubts,"  answered  the 


JINGU,  THE   AMAZON   OF   JAPAN.  29 

god  through  the  lips  of  the  empress,  "and  declare 
that  there  is  no  country  where  I  have  said  a  country 
exists,  you  blaspheme,  and  shall  never  see  this  land, 
but  the  empress,  your  wife,  shall  have  the  glory  of 
its  conquest." 

Even  this  was  not  enough  to  overcome  the  doubts 
of  the  emperor.  He  was  not  ready  to  believe  that 
a  god  could  speak  through  a  woman,  and  refused  to 
risk  his  army  on  an  unknown  sea.  On  the  contrary, 
he  led  it  against  Kumaso,  from  which  the  rebels 

O  ' 

drove  him  back  in  defeat.  Soon  after  he  died  sud- 
denly in  camp,  or,  as  some  declare,  was  slain  in  battle 
by  an  arrow.  Takenouchi,  his  minister,  kept  his 
death  a  secret  from  the  soldiers,  while  the  valiant 
Jingu  continued  the  war  and  soon  brought  the  rebel- 
lion to  an  end. 

The  death  of  the  mikado  had  left  the  power  of 
the  state  and  the  command  of  the  army  in  the  hands 
of  his  wife,  who  had  shown  her  valor  and  ability  in 
the  conquest  of  Kumaso.  Her  mind  was  now  filled 
with  the  promise  of  the  god  and  the  hope  of  new 
glory  to  be  won  beyond  the  sea.  But  first  she 
deemed  it  wise  to  obtain  further  signs  from  the 
celestial  powers. 

Going  to  the  shore  of  the  sea,  she  baited  a  hook 
with  a  grain  of  rice  and  threw  it  into  the  water, 
saying,  "  If  a  fish  be  caught  with  this  grain  of  rice, 
then  the  conquest  of  a  rich  country  shall  indeed  be 
mine." 

When  she  drew  up  the  line,  to  her  delight  she  saw 
a  fish  on  the  hook.  "  Medzurashiki  mono  /"  ("  won- 
derful thing!"),  she  exclaimed,  viewing  the  marvel 


30  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

as  a  sure  signal  that  the  gods  approved  her  design. 
Her  words  have  been  corrupted  into  Matsura,  which 
is  the  name  of  the  place  to  this  day,  and  here,  every 
year,  at  the  opening  of  the  fourth  Japanese  month, 
the  women  of  the  vicinity  go  fishing,  no  men  being 
permitted  to  cast  in  their  lines  on  that  day. 

The  pious  empress,  as  if  some  of  the  doubts  of 
the  mikado  had  clung  to  her  mind,  sought  still  an- 
other sign  from  the  gods.  She  now  let  her  long 
hair  fall  into  the  water,  saying  that  if  the  gods 
favored  her  design  her  tresses  would  come  out  of  the 
water  dry  and  parted  in  two  divisions.  Again  the 
celestial  powers  heard.  Her  abundant  black  locks 
left  the  water  dry  and  neatly  parted  as  by  a  comb. 

Doubt  no  longer  troubled  her  soul.  She  at  once 
ordered  the  generals  of  the  army  to  recruit  new 
forces,  build  ships,  and  prepare  for  an  ocean  enter- 
prise. 

"  On  this  voyage  depends  the  glory  or  the  ruin  of 
our  country,"  she  said  to  them.  "  I  intrust  its  details 
to  you,  and  will  hold  you  to  blame  if  anything  goes 
amiss  through  lack  of  care.  I  am  a  woman,  and  am 
young.  But  I  shall  undertake  this  enterprise,  and 
go  with  you  disguised  as  a  man,  trusting  to  you  and 
my  army,  and,  above  all,  to  the  gods.  If  we  are 
wise  and  valiant,  a  wealthy  country  shall  be  ours. 
If  we  succeed,  the  glory  shall  be  yours ;  if  through 
evil  fortune  we  fail,  on  me  shall  Jie  all  the  guilt  and 
disgrace." 

The  enthusiasm  of  the  empress  infected  the  com- 
manders, who  promised  her  their  full  support  in  her 
enterprise,  which  was  by  far  the  greatest  that  Japan 


JINQU,  THE   AMAZON   OP   JAPAN.  31 

had  ever  ventured  upon.  The  ships  were  buiit,  but 
the  perils  of  the  voyage  frightened  the  people,  and 
the  army  increased  but  slowly.  Impatient  at  the 
delay,  but  with  no  thought  of  giving  up  her  task, 
the  empress  again  appealed  to  the  gods.  A  shrine 
of  purification  was  built,  lustrations  were  made, 
sacrifices  offered,  and  prayers  for  speedy  success 
sent  up  to  the  celestial  hosts.  The  Kami,  or  gods, 
proved  favorable  still.  Troops  now  came  rapidly  in. 
Soon  a  large  army  was  assembled  and  embarked, 
and  all  was  ready  for  the  enterprise.  It  was  the 
year  201  A.D.,  the  first  year  of  the  third  Christian 
century. 

Jingu  now  issued  her  final  orders,  to  the  following 
effect  : 

"  There  must  be  no  plundering. 

"  Despise  not  a  few  enemies,  and  fear  not  many. 

"  Give  mercy  to  those  who  yield,  but  no  quarter  to 
the  stubborn. 

"  The  victors  shall  be  rewarded ;  deserters  shall  be 
punished." 

Then  through  her  lips  the  gods  spoke  again: 
"  The  Spirit  of  Peace  will  always  guide  and  protect 
you.  The  Spirit  of  War  will  guide  your  ships  across 
the  seas." 

It  must  here  be  remarked  that  the  annals  of  Japan 
do  not  seem  to  be  in  full  harmony.  In  the  days  of 
Sujin  the  civilizer,  a  century  and  a  half  earlier,  we 
are  told  that  there  was  regular  communication  be- 
tween Corea  and  Kiushiu,  and  that  a  prince  of 
Corea  came  to  Japan  to  live ;  while  the  story  of 
Jingu  seems  to  indicate  that  Corea  was  absolutely 


32  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

unknown  to  the  islanders.  There  were  none  to  pilot 
the  fleet  across  the  seas,  and  the  generals  seemed 
ignorant  of  where  Corea  was  to  be  found,  or  of  the 
proper  direction  in  which  to  steer.  They  lacked 
chart  and  compass,  and  had  only  the  sun,  the  stars, 
and  the  flight  of  birds  as  guides.  As  Noah  sent  out 
birds  from  his  ark  to  spy  out  the  land,  so  they  sent 
fishermen  ahead  of  the  fleet,  and  with  much  the 
same  result.  The  first  of  these  messengers  went  far 
to  the  west,  and  returned  with  the  word  that  land 
was  nowhere  to  be  seen.  Another  messenger  was 
sent,  and  came  back  with  cheering  news.  On  the 
western  horizon  he  had  seen  the  snowy  peaks  of 
distant  mountains. 

Inspired  by  this  report,  the  adventurers  sailed 
boldly  on.  The  winds,  the  waves,  the  currents,  all 
aided  their  speed.  The  gods  even  sent  shoals  of 
huge  fishes  in  their  wake,  which  heaped  up  the 
waves  and  drove  them  forward,  lifting  the  sterns 
and  making  the  prows  leap  like  living  things. 

At  length  land  was  seen  by  all,  and  with  shouts 
of  joy  they  ran  their  ships  ashore  upon  the  beach  of 
Southern  Corea.  The  sun  shone  in  all  its  splendor 
upon  the  gallant  host,  which  landed  speedily  upon 
the  new-found  shores,  where  it  was  marshalled  in 
imposing  array. 

The  Coreans  seem  to  have  been  as  ignorant  of 
geography  as  the  Japanese.  The  king  of  this  part 
of  the  country,  hearing  that  a  strange  fleet  had  come 
from  the  east  and  a  powerful  army  landed  on  his 
shores,  was  lost  in  terror  and  amazement. 

"  Who  can  these  be,  and  whence  have  they  come  ?" 


JINGU,  THE   AMAZON   OF   JAPAN.  33 

he  exclaimed.  "  We  have  never  heard  of  any  coun- 
try beyond  the  seas.  Have  the  gods  forsaken  us, 
and  sent  this  host  of  strangers  to  our  undoing  ?" 

Such  was  the  fear  of  the  king  that  he  made  no  re- 
sistance to  the  invaders.  Corean  envoys  were  sent 
to  them  with  the  white  flags  of  peace,  and  the 
country  was  given  up  without  a  fight.  The  king 
offered  to  deliver  all  his  treasures  to  the  invading 
host,  agreed  to  pay  tribute  to  Japan,  and  promised 
to  furnish  hostages  in  pledge  of  his  good  faith.  His 
nobles  joined  with  him  in  his  oath.  The  rivers 
might  flow  backward,  they  declared,  or  the  pebbles 
in  the  river-beds  leap  up  to  the  stars,  but  they  would 
never  break  their  word. 

Jingu  now  set  up  weapons  before  the  gate  of  the 
king  in  token  of  her  suzerainty  and  of  the  peace 
which  had  been  sworn.  The  spoils  won  from  the 
conquered  land  consisted  of  eighty  ships  well  laden 
with  gold  and  precious  goods  of  every  kind  the  coun- 
try possessed,  while  eighty  noble  Coreans  were  taken 
as  hostages  for  the  faith  of  the  king.  And  now,  with 
blare  of  trumpet  and  clash  of  weapons,  with  shouts 
of  triumph  and  songs  of  praise  to  the  gods,  the  fleet 
set  sail  for  home.  Two  months  had  sufficed  for  the 
whole  great  enterprise. 

Nine  empresses  in  all  have  sat  upon  the  throne 
of  Japan,  but  of  these  Jingu  alone  won  martial 
renown  and  gained  a  great  place  in  history.  The 
Japanese  have  always  felt  proud  of  this  conquest  of 
Corea,  the  first  war  in  which  their  armies  had  gone 
to  a  foreign  country  to  fight.  They  had,  to  use 
their  common  phrase,  made  "  the  arms  of  Japan 
3 


34  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

shine  beyond  the  seas,"  and  the  glory  of  the  ex- 
ploit descended  not  only  on  the  Amazon  queen,  but 
in  greater  measure  upon  her  son,  who  was  born 
shortly  after  her  return  to  Japan. 

The  Japanese  have  given  more  honor  to  this  son, 
still  unborn  when  the  conquest  was  achieved,  than 
to  his  warlike  mother.  It  was  in  him,  not  in  his 
mother,  they  declare,  that  the  Spirit  of  War  resided, 
and  he  is  now  worshipped  in  Japan  as  the  God  of 
War.  Ojin  by  name,  he  became  a  great  warrior, 
lived  to  be  a  hundred  and  ten  years  old,  and  was 
deified  after  his  death.  Through  all  the  centuries 
since  he  has  been  worshipped  by  the  people,  and  by 
soldiers  in  particular.  Some  of  the  finest  temples 
in  Japan  have  been  erected  in  his  honor,  and  the  land 
is  full  of  shrines  to  this  Eastern  Mars.  He  is  repre- 
sented with  a  frightful  and  scowling  countenance, 
holding  in  his  arms  a  broad,  two-edged  sword.  In 
all  periods  of  Japanese  art  a  favorite  subject  has 
been  the  group  of  the  snowy-bearded  Takenouchi, 
the  Japanese  Methuselah,  holding  the  infant  Ojin  in 
his  arms,  while  Jingu,  the  heroic  mother,  stands  by 
in  martial  robes. 


THE  DECLINE  OF  THE  MIX  AD  OS. 

OUR  journey  through  Japanese  history  now  takes 
us  over  a  wide  leap,  a  period  of  nearly  a  thousand 
years,  during  which  no  event  is  on  record  of  suffi- 
cient interest  to  call  for  special  attention.  The 
annals  of  Japan  are  in  some  respects  minute,  but 
only  at  long  intervals  does  a  hero  of  importance 
rise  above  the  general  level  of  ordinary  mortals. 
We  shall,  therefore,  pass  with  a  rapid  tread  over 
this  long  period,  giving  only  its  general  historical 
trend. 

The  conquest  of  Corea  was  of  high  importance 
to  Japan.  It  opened  the  way  for  a  new  civilization 
to  flow  into  the  long  isolated  island  realm.  For 
centuries  afterwards  Corea  served  as  the  channel 
through  which  the  arts  and  thoughts  of  Asia 
reached  the  empire  of  the  mikados.  We  are  told 
of  envoys  bearing  tribute  from  Corea  of  horses,  and 
of  tailors,  and  finally  a  schoolmaster,  being  sent 
to  Japan.  The  latter,  Wani  by  name,  is  said  to 
have  introduced  the  art  of  writing.  Mulberry-trees 
were  afterwards  planted  and  silk-culture  was  un- 
dertaken. Then  came  more  tailors,  and  after  them 
architects  and  learned  men.  At  length,  in  the  year 
552,  a  party  of  doctors,  astronomers,  astrologists, 
and  mathematicians  came  from  Corea  to  the  Jap- 
anese court,  and  with  them  a  number  of  Buddhist 

36 


36  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

missionaries,  who  brought  a  new  religion  into  the 
land. 

Thus  gradually  the  arts,  sciences,  letters,  and  re- 
ligions of  Asia  made  their  way  into  the  island  king- 
dom, and  the  old  life  of  Japan  was  transformed.  A 
wave  of  foreign  civilization  had  flowed  across  the 
seas  to  give  new  life  and  thought  to  the  island  people, 
and  the  progress  of  Japan  from  the  barbarism  of 
the  far  past  towards  the  civilization  of  the  present 
day  then  fairly  began. 

Meanwhile,  important  changes  were  taking  place 
in  the  government.  From  the  far-off  days  of 
Jimmu,  the  first  emperor,  until  a  century  after 
Buddhism  was  introduced,  the  mikados  were  the 
actual  rulers  of  their  people.  The  palace  was  not  a 
place  of  seclusion,  the  face  of  the  monarch  was  vis- 
ible to  his  subjects,  and  he  appeared  openly  at  the 
head  of  the  army  and  in  the  affairs  of  government. 
This  was  the  golden  age  of  the  imperial  power.  A 
leaden  age  was  to  succeed. 

The  change  began  in  the  appointment  by  Sujin  of 
shoguns  or  generals  over  the  military  departments 
of  the  government.  Gradually  two  distinct  official 
castes  arose,  those  in  charge  of  civil  affairs  and 
those  at  the  head  of  military  operations.  As  the 
importance  of  these  officials  grew,  they  stood  be- 
tween the  emperor  and  his  subjects,  secluding  him 
more  and  more  from  the  people.  The  mikado  grad- 
ually became  lost  to  view  behind  a  screen  of  official- 
ism, which  hid  the  throne.  Eventually  all  the  mili- 
tary power  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  shoguns,  and 
the  mikado  was  seen  no  moi'e  at  the  head  of  his 


THE   DECLINE   OP  THE    MIKADOS.  37 

army.  His  power  decayed,  as  he  became  to  the 
people  rather  a  distant  deity  than  a  present  and 
active  ruler.  There  arose  in  time  a  double  govern- 
ment, with  two  capitals  and  centres  of  authority ; 
the  military  caste  became  dominant,  anarchy  ruled 
for  centuries,  the  empire  was  broken  up  into  a  series 
of  feudal  provinces  and  baronies,  and  the  unity  of 
the  past  was  succeeded  by  the  division  of  authority 
which  existed  until  far  within  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. The  fact  that  there  were  two  rulers,  in  two 
capitals,  gave  the  impression  that  there  were  two 
emperors  in  Japan,  one  spiritual  and  one  secular,  and 
when  Commodore  Perry  reached  that  country,  in 
1853,  he  entered  into  a  treaty  with  the  shogun  or 
"  tycoon,"  the  head  of  the  military  caste,  under  the 
belief  that  he  was  dealing  with  the  actual  ruler  of 
Japan.  The  truth  is,  there  has  never  been  but  one 
emperor  in  Japan,  the  mikado.  His  power  has 
varied  at  times,  but  he  is  now  again  the  actual  and 
visible  head  of  the  empire,  and  the  shoguns,  who 
once  lorded  it  so  mightily,  have  been  swept  out  of 
existence. 

This  explanation  is  necessary  in  order  that  readers 
may  understand  the  peculiar  conditions  of  Japanese 
history.  Gradually  the  mikado  became  surrounded 
by  a  hedge  of  etiquette  which  removed  him  from 
the  view  of  the  outer  world.  He  never  appeared 
in  public,  and  none  of  his  subjects,  except  his  wives 
and  his  highest  ministers,  ever  saw  his  face.  He 
sat  on  a  throne  of  mats  behind  a  curtain,  even  his 
feet  not  being  allowed  to  touch  the  earth.  If  he  left 
the  palace  to  go  abroad  in  the  city,  the  journey  was 


38  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

made  in  a  closely  curtained  car  drawn  by  bullocks. 
To  the  people,  the  mikado  became  like  a  deity,  his 
name  sacred  and  inviolable,  his  power  in  the  hands 
of  the  boldest  of  his  subjects. 

Buddhism  had  now  become  the  official  religion 
of  the  empire,  priests  multiplied,  monasteries  were 
founded,  and  the  court  became  the  chief  support  of 
the  new  faith,  the  courtiers  zealously  studying  the 
sacred  books  of  India,  while  the  mikado  and  his 
empress  sought  by  every  means  to  spread  the  new 
belief  among  their  people. 

An  emperor  thus  occupied  could  not  pay  much 
attention  to  the  duties  of  government,  and  the  power 
of  the  civil  ministers  and  military  chiefs  grew  accord- 
ingly. The  case  was  like  that  of  the  Merovingian 
monarchs  of  France  and  the  Mayors  of  the  Palace, 
who  in  time  succeeded  to  the  throne.  The  mikados 
began  to  abdicate  after  short  reigns,  to  shave  off 
their  hair  to  show  that  they  renounced  the  world 
and  its  vanities,  to  become  monks  and  spend  the  re- 
mainder of  their  days  in  the  cloister.  These  short 
reigns  helped  the  shoguns  and  ministers  in  their 
ambitious  purposes,  until  in  time  the  reins  of  power 
fell  into  the  hands  of  a  few  great  families,  who  fought 
furiously  with  one  another  for  the  control.  It  is  with 
the  feuds  of  these  families  that  we  have  now  to  do. 
The  mikados  had  sunk  out  of  sight,  being  regarded 
by  the  public  with  awe  as  spiritual  emperors,  while 
their  ministers  rose  into  power  and  became  the 
leaders  of  life  and  the  lords  of  events  in  Japan. 

First  among  these  noble  families  to  gain  control 
was  that  of  the  Fujiwara  (Wistaria  meadow).  They 


THE  DECLINE  OP  THE  MIKADOS.         39 

were  of  royal  origin,  and  rose  to  leading  power  in 
the  year  645,  when  Kamatari,  the  founder  of  the 
family,  became  regent  of  the  empire.  All  the  great 
offices  of  the  empire  in  time  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  Fujiwaras :  they  married  their  daughters  to  the 
mikados,  surrounded  them  with  their  adherents,  and 
governed  the  empire  in  their  name.  In  the  end  they 
decided  who  should  be  mikado,  ruled  the  country 
like  raonarchs,  and  became  in  effect  the  proprietors 
of  the  throne.  In  their  strong  hands  the  mikado 
sank  into  a  puppet,  to  move  as  they  pulled  the 
strings. 

But  the  Fujiwaras  were  not  left  to  lord  it  alone. 
Other  great  families  sought  a  share  of  the  power, 
and  their  rivalry  often  ended  in  war  and  bloodshed. 
The  most  ancient  of  these  rivals  was  the  family  of 
the  Sugawara.  Greatest  in  this  family  was  the 
renowned  Sugawara  Michizane,  a  polished  courtier 
and  famous  scholar,  whose  talents  raised  him  to  the 
highest  position  in  the  realm.  Japan  had  no  man 
of  greater  learning;  his  historical  works  became 
famous,  and  some  of  them  are  still  extant.  But  his 
genius  did  not  save  him  from  misfortune.  His  rivals, 
the  Fujiwara,  in  the  end  succeeded  in  having  him 
banished  to  Kiushiu,  where,  exposed  to  dire  poverty, 
he  starved  to  death.  This  martyr  to  official  rivalry 
is  now  worshipped  in  Japan  as  a  deity,  the  patron 
god  of  literature  and  letters.  Temples  have  been 
erected  to  him,  and  students  worship  at  his  shrine. 

At  a  later  date  two  other  powerful  families  became 
rivals  for  the  control  of  the  empire  and  added  to  the 
anarchy  of  the  realm.  The  first  of  these  was  the 


40  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

Taira  family,  founded  889  A.D.,  whose  members  at- 
tained prominence  as  great  military  chiefs.  The 
second  was  the  Minamoto  family,  founded  somewhat 
later,  which  rose  to  be  a  powerful  rival  of  the  Taira, 
their  rivalry  often  taking  the  form  of  war.  For 
centuries  the  governmental  and  military  history  of 
Japan  was  made  up  of  a  record  of  the  jealousies  and 
dissensions  of  these  rival  families,  in  whose  hands 
lay  war  and  peace,  power  and  place,  and  with  whose 
quarrels  and  struggles  for  power  our  next  tales  will 
be  concerned. 


HO  W  THE  TAIRA  AND  THE  MINA- 
MOTO  FOUGHT  FOR  PO  WER. 

IN  the  struggle  of  the  great  families  of  Japan  for 
precedence,  the  lords  of  the  Fujiwara  held  the  civil 
power  of  the  realm,  while  the  shoguns,  or  generals, 
were  chosen  from  the  Taira  and  Minamoto  clans. 
Bred  to  arms,  leading  the  armies  of  the  empire  in 
many  a  hard-fought  war,  making  the  camp  their 
home,  and  loving  best  the  trumpet-blast  of  battle, 
they  became  hardy  and  daring  warriors,  the  military 
caste  of  Japan.  While  war  continued,  the  shoguns 
were  content  to  let  the  Fujiwara  lord  it  at  court, 
themselves  preferring  the  active  labors  of  the  field. 
Only  when  peace  prevailed,  and  there  were  no  ene- 
mies to  conquer  nor  rebels  to  subdue,  did  these  war- 
riors begin  to  long  for  the  spoils  of  place  and  to  envy 
the  Fujiwara  their  power. 

Chief  among  those  thus  moved  by  ambition  was 
Kiyomori,  the  greatest  of  the  Taira  leaders.  As  a 
boy  he  possessed  a  strong  frame  and  showed  a  proud 
spirit,  wearing  unusually  high  clogs,  which  in  Japan 
indicates  a  disposition  to  put  on  lordly  airs.  His 
position  as  the  son  of  a  soldier  soon  gave  him  an 
opportunity  to  show  his  mettle.  The  seas  then 
swarmed  with  pirates,  who  had  become  the  scourge 
alike  of  Corea  and  of  Japan  and  were  making  havoc 
among  the  mercantile  fleets.  The  ambitious  boy, 

41 


42  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

full  of  warlike  spirit,  demanded,  when  but  eighteen 
years  of  age,  to  be  sent  against  these  ocean  pests, 
and  cruised  against  them  in  the  Suwo  Nada,  a  part 
of  the  Inland  Sea.  Here  he  met  and  fought  a  ship- 
load of  the  most  desperate  of  the  buccaneers,  cap- 
turing their  vessel,  and  then  attacking  them  in  their 
place  of  refuge,  which  he  destroyed. 

For  years  afterwards  Kiyomori  showed  the 
greatest  valor  by  land  and  sea,  and  in  1153,  being 
then  thirty-six  years  of  age,  he  succeeded  his  father 
as  minister  of  justice  for  Japan.  Up  to  this  time 
the  families  of  the  Taira  and  the  Minamoto  had  been 
friendly  rivals  in  the  field.  Now  their  friendship 
came  to  an  end  and  was  succeeded  by  bitter  enmity. 
In  1156  there  were  rival  claimants  for  the  throne, 
one  supported  by  each  of  these  great  families.  The 
Taira  party  succeeded,  got  possession  of  the  palace, 
and  controlled  the  emperor  whom  they  had  raised  to 
the  throne. 

Kiyomori  soon  attained  the  highest  power  in  the 
realm,  and  in  him  the  military  caste  first  rose  to 
pre-eminence.  The  Fujiwara  were  deposed,  all  the 
high  ofiices  at  court  were  filled  by  his  relatives,  and 
he  made  himself  the  military  chief  of  the  empire 
and  the  holder  of  the  civil  authority,  the  mikado 
being  but  a  creature  of  his  will. 

History  at  this  point  gives  us  a  glimpse  of  a 
curious  state  of  affairs.  Go-Shirawaka,  the  emperor 
whom  Kiyomori  had  raised  to  the  throne  in  1156, 
abdicated  in  1159,  shaved  off  his  hair,  and  became  a 
Buddhist  monk,  professing  to  retire  from  the  world 
within  the  holy  cloisters  of  a  monastery.  But 


HOW   THE   TAIRA   AND    MINAMOTO   FOUGHT.          43 

nothing  was  farther  from  his  thoughts.  He  was  a 
man  of  immoral  desires,  and  found  his  post  on  the 
throne  a  check  to  the  debaucheries  in  which  he 
wished  to  indulge.  As  a  monk  he  exercised  more 
power  than  he  had  done  as  a  mikado,  retaining  the 
control  of  affairs  during  the  reigns  of  his  son  and  his 
two  grandsons.  The  ranks  and  titles  of  the  empire 
were  granted  by  him  with  a  lavish  hand,  and  their 
disposition  was  controlled  by  Kiyomori,  his  powerful 
confederate,  who,  in  addition  to  raising  his  relatives 
to  power,  held  himself  several  of  the  highest  offices 
in  the  realm. 

The  power  of  the  Taira  family  increased  until  sixty 
men  of  the  clan  held  important  posts  at  court,  while 
their  lands  spread  over  thirty  provinces.  They  had 
splendid  palaces  in  Kioto,  the  capital,  and  in  Fuku- 
wara,  overlooking  the  Inland  Sea.  The  two  sons  of 
Kiyomori  were  made  generals  of  high  rank,  and  his 
daughter  became  wife  of  the  emperor  Takakura,  a 
boy  eleven  years  of  age.  The  Taira  chief  was  now  at 
the  summit  of  power,  and  his  foes  in  the  depths  of 
distress.  The  Fujiwara,  who  had  no  military  power, 
were  unable  to  contend  with  him,  and  his  most 
dangerous  rivals,  the  Minamoto,  were  slain  or  driven 
into  exile.  Yoshitomo,  the  head  of  the  house,  was 
assassinated  by  a  traitor  bribed  by  Kiyomori,  his 
oldest  son  was  beheaded,  and  the  others — whom  he 
thought  to  be  the  last  of  the  Minamoto — were  either 
banished  or  immured  in  monasteries.  All  the  reins 
of  power  seemed  to  be  in  the  regent's  grasp. 

The  story  is  here  diversified  by  a  legend  well 
worth  repeating.  One  of  the  Minamoto,  Tametomo 


44  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

by  name,  was  an  archer  of  marvellous  powers.  His 
strength  was  equal  to  that  of  fifty  ordinary  men, 
and  such  was  the  power  of  his  right  arm,  which 
was  shorter  than  his  left,  that  he  could  draw  a  bow 
which  four  common  archers  could  not  bend,  and  let 
fly  a  shaft  five  feet  long,  with  an  enormous  bolt  as 
its  head.  This  Japanese  Hercules  was  banished  from 
the  court  at  the  instigation  of  the  Taira,  the  muscles 
of  his  arm  were  cut,  and  he  was  sent  in  a  cage  to 
Idzu. 

Escaping  from  his  guards,  he  fled  to  one  of  the 
smaller  islands,  and  remained  in  concealment  until 
his  arm  had  healed.  Here  the  great  archer  became 
governor  of  the  people,  and  forbade  them  to  pay 
tribute  to  the  throne.  A  fleet  of  boats  was  de- 
spatched against  him,  but,  standing  on  the  strand, 
he  sent  an  arrow  hurtling  through  the  timbers  of 
the  nearest  vessel  and  sunk  it  beneath  the  waves. 
Then,  shouting  defiance  to  his  foes,  he  shut  himself 
up  in  his  house,  set  fire  to  it,  and  perished  in  the 
flames.  But  another  legend  relates  that  he  fled  to 
the  Loochoo  Islands,  where  he  became  ruler  and 
founder  of  their  dynasty  of  kings.  On  the  Japanese 
greenback  notes  is  a  picture  of  this  mighty  archer, 
who  is  shown  grasping  his  bow  after  sinking  the  ship. 

It  was  the  purpose  of  Kiyomori  to  exterminate 
the  family  of  his  foes.  In  two  instances  he  was  in- 
duced to  let  sons  of  that  family  live,  a  leniency  for 
which  the  Taira  were  to  pay  bitterly  in  the  end. 
The  story  of  both  these  boys  is  full  of  romance. 
We  give  one  of  them  here,  reserving  the  other  for 
a  succeeding  tale.  Yoritomo,  the  third  son  of  Yoshi- 


HOW   THE   TAIRA   AND   MINAMOTO    FOUGHT.         45 

tomo,  was  twelve  years  of  age  at  the  date  of  his 
father's  defeat  and  death.  During  the  retreat  the 
boy  was  separated  from  his  companions,  and  fell 
into  the  hands  of  an  officer  of  the  opposite  party, 
who  took  him  as  prisoner  to  Kioto,  the  capital. 
Here  the  regent  sentenced  him  to  death,  and  the  day 
for  his  execution  was  fixed.  Only  the  tender  heart 
of  a  woman  saved  the  life  of  one  who  was  destined 
to  become  the  avenger  of  his  father  and  friends. 

"  Would  you  like  to  live  ?"  the  boy's  captor  asked 
him. 

"  Yes,"  he  replied ;  "  my  father  and  mother  are 
both  dead,  and  who  but  I  can  pray  for  their  happi- 
ness in  the  world  to  come  ?" 

The  feelings  of  the  officer  were  touched  by  this 
reply,  and,  hoping  to  save  the  boy,  he  told  the 
story  to  the  step-mother  of  Kiyomori,  who  was  a 
Buddhist  nun.  The  filial  piety  of  the  child  affected 
her,  and  she  was  deeply  moved  when  the  officer  said, 
"  Yoritomo  is  much  like  Prince  Uma." 

Uma  had  been  her  favorite  son,  one  loved  and  lost, 
and,  her  mother's  heart  stirred  to  its  depths,  she 
sought  Kiyomori  and  begged  him  to  spare  the  boy's 
life.  He  was  obdurate  at  first,  worldly  wisdom  bid- 
ding him  to  remove  the  last  scion  of  his  foes,  but  in 
the  end  he  yielded  to  his  mother's  prayer  and  con- 
sented to  spare  the  child,  condemning  him,  how- 
ever, to  distant  exile.  This  softness  of  heart  he  was 
bitterly  to  regret. 

Yoritomo  was  banished  to  the  province  of  Idzu, 
where  he  was  kept  under  close  guard  by  two  officers 
of  the  Taira.  He  was  advised  by  a  friend  to  shave 


46  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

off  his  hair  and  become  a  monk,  but  a  faithful  seis 
vant  who  attended  him  counselled  him  to  keep  his 
hair  and  await  with  a  brave  heart  what  the  future 
might  bring  forth.  The  boy  was  shrewd  and  pos- 
sessed of  high  self-control.  None  of  the  remaining 
followers  of  his  father  dared  communicate  with  him, 
and  enemies  surrounded  him,  yet  he  restrained  all 
display  of  feeling,  was  patient  under  provocation, 
capable  of  great  endurance,  and  so  winning  in  man- 
ner that  he  gained  the  esteem  even  of  the  enemies 
of  his  family. 

The  story  of  Yoritomo's  courtship  and  marriage 
is  one  of  much  interest.  Hojo  Tokimasa,  a  noble 
with  royal  blood  in  his  veins,  had  two  daughters,  the 
elder  being  of  noted  beauty,  the  younger  lacking  in 
personal  charms.  The  exiled  youth,  who  wished  to 
ally  himself  to  this  powerful  house  and  was  anxious 
to  win  the  mother's  favor  in  his  suit,  was  prudent 
enough  to  choose  the  homely  girl.  He  sent  her  a  let- 
ter, asking  her  hand  in  marriage,  by  his  servant,  but 
the  latter,  who  had  ideas  of  his  own  and  preferred 
the  beauty  for  his  master's  wife,  destroyed  the  letter 
and  wrote  another  to  Masago,  the  elder  daughter. 

That  night  the  homely  sister  had  a  dream.  A 
pigeon  seemed  to  fly  to  her  with  a  box  of  gold  in  its 
beak.  She  told  her  vision  to  her  sister,  whom  it 
deeply  interested,  as  seeming  to  be  a  token  of  some 
good  fortune  coming. 

"  I  will  buy  your  dream,"  she  said.  "  Sell  it  to  me, 
and  I  will  give  you  my  toilet  mirror  in  exchange. 
The  price  I  pay  is  little,"  she  repeated,  using  a  com- 
mon Japanese  phrase. 


HOW  THE  TAIRA  AND  MINAMOTO  FOUGHT.    47 

The  homely  sister  willingly  made  the  exchange, 
doubtless  preferring  a  mirror  to  a  dream.  But  she 
had  hardly  done  so  when  the  messenger  arrived  with 
the  letter  he  had  prepared.  Masago  gladly  accepted, 
already  being  well  inclined  towards  the  handsome 
youth,  but  her  father  had  meanwhile  promised  her 
hand  to  another  suitor,  and  refused  to  break  his 
word.  The  marriage  was  solemnized.  But  an  un- 
derstanding had  been  reached  between  the  lovers, 
and  early  on  the  wedding-night  Masago  eloped  with 
the  waiting  youth.  In  vain  the  husband  sought  for 
the  fleeing  pair.  The  father,  seemingly  angry,  aided 
him  in  his  search,  though  really  glad  at  the  lovers' 
flight.  He  much  preferred  Yoritomo,  though  he  had 
been  bound  by  his  word,  and  in  later  years  he  be- 
came one  of  his  ablest  partisans.  Masago  rose  to 
fame  in  Japanese  history,  aided  in  the  subsequent 
triumph  of  her  spouse,  and  did  much  to  add  to  the 
splendor  and  dignity  of  his  court. 

During  this  period  Kiyomori  was  making  ene- 
mies, and  in  time  became  so  insolent  and  overbear- 
ing that  a  conspiracy  was  formed  for  his  overthrow. 
At  the  head  of  this  was  one  of  the  royal  princes, 
who  engaged  Yoritomo  in  the  plot.  The  young  ex- 
ile sent  out  agents  right  and  left  to  rouse  the  dis- 
contented. Many  were  won  over,  but  one  of  them 
laughed  the  scheme  to  scorn,  saying,  "  For  an  exile 
to  plot  against  the  Taira  is  like  a  mouse  plotting 
against  a  cat." 

But  a  conspiracy  cannot  be  killed  by  a  laugh. 
Yoritomo  was  soon  in  the  field  at  the  head  of  a  body 
of  followers.  A  fierce  fight  took  place  in  the  moun- 


48  HISTORICAL  TALES. 

tains,  in  which  the  young  rebel  fought  bravely,  but 
was  defeated  and  forced  to  flee  for  his  life.  Pursuit 
was  sharp,  and  he  escaped  only  by  hiding  in  a  hollow 
log.  He  afterwards  reached  a  temple  and  concealed 
himself  in  the  priests'  wardrobe.  At  length  he  suc- 
ceeded in  crossing  the  Bay  of  Yedo  to  Awa,  on  its 
northern  side.  Here  he  found  friends,  sent  out 
agents,  and  was  not  long  in  gathering  a  new  army 
from  the  old  friends  of  the  Minamoto  and  those  who 
hated  the  tyrant.  In  a  few  months  he  was  at  the 
head  of  a  large  and  well-drilled  force,  with  many 
noted  generals  in  command.  The  country  was  fer- 
tile and  food  abundant,  and  day  by  day  the  army 
became  larger. 

But  the  Taira  were  not  idle.  Kiyomori  quickly 
gathered  a  large  army,  which  he  sent  to  put  down 
the  rebellion,  and  the  hostile  forces  came  face  to 
face  on  opposite  sides  of  the  Fuji  River,  the  swiftest 
stream  in  Japan.  Between  them  rolled  the  impetuous 
flood,  which  neither  party  dared  to  cross  in  the  face 
of  the  foe,  the  most  they  could  do  being  to  glare  at 
one  another  across  the  stream. 

The  story  goes  that  one  of  the  Taira  men,  knowing 
that  the  turn  of  the  tide  would  favor  their  enemies, 
went  to  the  river  flats  at  night  and  stirred  up  the 
flocks  of  wild  fowl  that  rested  there.  What  he  hoped 
to  gain  by  this  is  not  very  clear,  but  it  told  against 
his  own  side,  for  the  noise  of  the  flocks  was  thought 
by  the  Taira  force  to  be  due  to  a  night  attack  from 
their  foes,  and  they  fled  in  a  sudden  panic. 

After  this  bloodless  victory  Yoritomo  returned  to 
his  chosen  place  of  residence,  named  Kamakura, 


HOW  THE  TAIRA   AND   MINAMOTO  FOUGHT.         49 

where  he  began  to  build  a  city  that  should  rival  the 
capital  in  size  and  importance.  A  host  of  builders 
and  laborers  was  set  at  work,  the  dense  thickets  were 
cleared  away,  and  a  new  town  rapidly  sprang  up, 
with  streets  lined  with  dwellings  and  shops,  store- 
houses of  food,  imposing  temples,  and  lordly  man- 
sions. The  anvils  rang  merrily  as  the  armorers  forged 
weapons  for  the  troops,  merchants  sought  the  new 
city  with  their  goods,  heavily  laden  boats  flocked 
into  its  harbor,  and  almost  as  if  by  magic  a  great 
city,  the  destined  capital  of  the  shoguns,  rose  from 
the  fields. 

The  site  of  Kamakura  had  been  well  chosen.  It 
lay  in  a  valley  facing  the  open  sea,  while  in  the  rear 
rose  a  semicircle  of  precipitous  hills.  Through  these 
roadways  were  cut,  which  might  easily  be  defended 
against  enemies,  while  offering  free  access  to  friends. 
The  power  of  the  Minamoto  had  suddenly  grown 
again,  and  the  Taira  saw  fronting  them  an  active 
and  vigorous  foe  where  a  year  before  all  had  seemed 
tranquil  and  the  land  their  own. 

To  the  proud  Kiyomori  this  was  a  bitter  draught. 
He  fell  sick  unto  death,  and  the  high  officials  of  the 
empire  gathered  round  his  bed,  in  mortal  fear  lest  he 
to  whom  they  owed  their  power  should  be  swept 
away.  With  his  last  breath  the  vindictive  old  chief 
uttered  invectives  against  his  foes. 

"My  only  regret  is  that  I  am  dying,"  he  said, 
"and  have  not  yet  seen  the  head  of  Yoritomo  of  the 
Minamoto.  After  my  decease  do  not  make  offerings 
to  Buddha  on  my  account ;  do  not  read  the  sacred 
books.  Only  cut  off  the  head  of  Yoritomo  of  the 

4 


50  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

Minamoto  and  hang  it  on  my  tomb.  This  is  my  sole 
command :  see  that  it  be  faithfully  performed." 

This  order  was  not  destined  to  be  carried  out. 
Yoritomo  was  to  die  peacefully,  eleven  years  after- 
wards, in  1199,  with  his  head  safe  on  his  shoulders. 
Yet  his  bedchamber  was  nightly  guarded,  lest  traitors 
should  take  his  life,  while  war  broke  out  from  end  to 
end  of  the  empire.  Kiyomori's  last  words  seemed  to 
have  lighted  up  its  flames.  Step  by  step  the  forces  of 
Yoritomo  advanced.  Victory  followed  their  banners, 
and  the  foe  went  down  in  death.  At  length  Kioto, 
the  capital  of  the  mikado,  was  reached,  and  fell  into 
their  hands.  The  Taira  fled  with  the  young  mikado 
and  his  wife,  but  his  brother  was  proclaimed  mikado 
in  his  stead,  and  all  the  treasures  of  the  Taira  fell 
into  the  victors'  hands. 

Though  the  power  of  Yoritomo  now  seemed  as- 
sured, he  had  a  rebellion  in  his  own  ranks  to  meet. 
His  cousin  Yoshinaka,  the  leader  of  the  conquering 
army,  was  so  swollen  with  pride  at  his  success  that 
he  forced  the  court  to  grant  him  the  highest  military 
title,  imprisoned  the  old  ex-mikado  Go-Shirakawa, 
who  had  long  been  the  power  behind  the  throne,  be- 
headed the  Buddhist  abbots  who  had  opposed  him, 
and  acted  with  such  rebellious  insolence  that  Yori- 
tomo had  to  send  an  array  against  him.  A  battle 
took  place,  in  which  he  was  defeated  and  killed. 

Yoritomo  was  now  supreme  lord  of  Japan,  the 
mikado,  for  whom  he  acted,  being  a  mere  tool  in  his 
hands.  Yet  one  great  conflict  had  still  to  be  fought 
by  the  shogun's  younger  brother,  whose  romantic 
story  we  have  next  to  tell. 


THE  BAYARD  OF  JAPAN. 

YORITOMO  was  not  the  only  son  of  the  Minamoto 
chief  whom  the  tyrant  let  live.  There  was  another, 
a  mere  babe  at  the  time,  who  became  a  hero  of  chiv- 
alry, and  whose  life  has  ever  since  been  the  beacon 
of  honor  and  knightly  virtue  to  the  youth  of  Japan. 

When  Yoshitomo  fled  from  his  foes  after  his  defeat 
in  1159,  there  went  with  him  a  beautiful  young  peas- 
ant girl,  named  Tokiwa,  whom  he  had  deeply  loved, 
and  who  had  borne  him  three  children,  all  boys. 
The  chief  was  murdered  by  three  assassins  hired  by 
his  foe,  and  Tokiwa  fled  with  her  children,  fearing 
lest  they  also  should  be  slain. 

It  was  winter.  Snow  deeply  covered  the  ground. 
Whither  she  should  go  or  how  she  should  live  the 
poor  mother  knew  not,  but  she  kept  on,  clasping  her 
babe  to  her  breast,  while  her  two  little  sons  trudged 
by  her  side,  the  younger  holding  her  hand,  the  older 
carrying  his  father's  sword,  which  she  had  taken  as 
the  last  relic  of  her  love.  In  the  end  the  fleeing 
woman,  half  frozen  and  in  peril  of  starvation,  was 
met  by  a  soldier  of  the  army  of  her  foes.  Her 
pitiable  condition  and  the  helplessness  of  her  chil- 
dren moved  him  to  compassion,  and  he  gave  her 
shelter  and  food. 

Her  flight  troubled  Kiyomori,  who  had  hoped  to 
destroy  the  whole  family  of  his  foes,  and  had  given 

61 


52  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

strict  orders  for  her  capture  or  death.  Not  being 
able  to  discover  her  place  of  retreat,  he  conceived  a 
plan  which  he  felt  sure  would  bring  her  within 
his  power.  In  Japan  and  China  alike  affection  for 
parents  is  held  to  be  the  highest  duty  of  a  child,  the 
basal  element  of  the  ancient  religion  of  both  these 
lands.  He  therefore  seized  Tokiwa's  mother,  feeling 
sure  that  filial  duty  would  bring  her  to  Kioto  to  save 
her  mother's  life. 

Tokiwa  heard  that  her  mother  was  held  as  a  host- 
age for  her  and  threatened  with  death  unless  she, 
with  her  children,  should  come  to  her  relief.  The 
poor  woman  was  in  an  agony  of  doubt.  Did  she 
owe  the  greatest  duty  to  her  mother,  or  to  her  chil- 
dren ?  Could  she  deliver  up  her  babes  to  death  ? 
Yet  could  she  abandon  her  mother,  whom  she  had 
been  taught  as  her  first  and  highest  duty  to  guard 
and  revere  ?  In  this  dilemma  she  conceived  a  plan. 
Her  beauty  was  all  she  possessed ;  but  by  its  aid 
she  might  soften  the  hard  heart  of  Kiyomori  and 
save  both  her  mother  and  her  children. 

Success  followed  her  devoted  effort.  Beaching  the 
capital,  Tokiwa  obtained  an  audience  with  the  tyrant, 
who  was  so  struck  with  her  great  beauty  that  he 
wished  to  make  her  his  mistress.  At  first  she  refused, 
but  her  mother  begged  her  with  tears  to  consent,  and 
she  finally  yielded  on  Kiyomori's  promise  that  her 
children  should  be  spared.  This  mercy  did  not  please 
the  friends  of  the  tyrant,  who  insisted  that  the  boys 
should  be  put  to  death,  fearing  to  let  any  one  live 
who  bore  the  hated  name  of  Minamoto.  But  the 
beauty  of  the  mother  and  her  tearful  pleadings  won 


THE   BAYARD   OP  JAPAN.  53 

the  tyrant's  consent,  and  her  sacrifice  for  her  children 
was  not  in  vain. 

The  youngest  of  the  three,  the  babe  whom  Tokiwa 
had  borne  in  her  arms  in  her  flight,  grew  up  to  be 
a  healthy,  ruddy-cheeked  boy,  small  of  stature,  but 
fiery  and  impetuous  in  spirit.  Kiyomori  had  no  in- 
tention, however,  that  these  boys  should  be  left  at 
liberty  to  cause  him  trouble  in  the  future.  When  of 
proper  age  he  sent  them  to  a  monastery,  ordering 
that  they  should  be  brought  up  as  priests. 

The  elder  boys  consented  to  this,  suffering  their 
black  hair  to  be  shaved  off  and  the  robes  of  Buddhist 
neophytes  to  be  put  on  them.  But  Yoshitsune,  the 
youngest,  had  no  fancy  for  the  life  of  a  monk,  and 
refused  to  let  the  razor  come  near  his  hair.  Though 
dwelling  in  the  monastery,  he  was  so  merry  and  self- 
willed  that  his  pranks  caused  much  scandal,  and  the 
pious  bonzes  knew  not  what  to  do  with  this  young 
ox,  as^they  called  the  irrepressible  boy. 

As  Yoshitsune  grew  older,  his  distaste  at  the  dul- 
ness  of  his  life  in  the  cloister  increased.  The  wars 
in  the  north,  word  of  which  penetrated  even  those 
holy  walls,  inspired  his  ambition,  and  he  determined 
in  some  way  to  escape.  The  opportunity  to  do  so  soon 
arose.  Traders  from  the  outer  world  made  their 
way  within  the  monastery  gates  for  purposes  of  busi- 
ness, and  among  these  was  an  iron-merchant,  who 
was  used  to  making  frequent  journeys  to  the  north 
of  the  island  of  Hondo  to  obtain  the  fine  iron  of 
the  celebrated  mines  of  that  region.  The  youth 
begged  this  iron-merchant  to  take  him  on  one  of  his 
journeys,  a  request  which  he  at  first  refused,  through 


54  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

fear  of  offending  the  priests.  But  Yoshitsune  in* 
sisted,  saying  that  they  would  be  glad  enough  to  be 
rid  of  him,  and  the  trader  at  length  consented.  Yo- 
shitsune was  right :  the  priests  were  very  well  satis- 
fied to  learn  that  he  had  taken  himself  off. 

On  the  journey  the  youthful  noble  gave  proofs  of 
remarkable  valor  and  strength.  He  seized  and  held 
prisoner  a  bold  robber,  and  on  another  occasion 
helped  to  defend  the  house  of  a  man  of  wealth  from 
an  attack  by  robbers,  five  of  whom  he  killed.  These 
and  other  exploits  alarmed  a  friend  who  was  with 
him,  and  who  bade  him  to  be  careful  lest  the  Taira 
should  hear  of  his  doings,  learn  who  he  was,  and  kill 
him. 

The  boy  at  length  found  a  home  with  the  prince 
of  Mutsu,  a  nobleman  of  the  Fujiwara  clan.  Here 
he  spent  his  days  in  military  exercises  and  the 
chase,  and  by  the  time  he  was  twenty-one  had 
gained  a  reputation  as  a  soldier  of  great  valor  and 
consummate  skill,  and  as  a  warrior  in  whom  the  true 
spirit  of  chivalry  seemed  inborn.  A  youth  of  such 
honor,  virtue,  courage,  and  martial  fire  Japan  had 
rarely  known. 

.  In  the  war  that  soon  arose  between  Yoritomo  and 
the  Taira  the  youthful  Bayard  served  his  brother 
well.  Kiyomori,  in  sparing  the  sons  of  the  Mina- 
moto  chief,  had  left  alive  the  two  ablest  of  all  who  bore 
that  name.  So  great  were  the  skill  and  valor  of  the 
young  warrior  that  his  brother,  on  the  rebellion  of 
Yoshinaka,  made  Yoshitsune  commander  of  the  army 
of  the  west,  and  sent  him  against  the  rebellious  gen- 
eral, who  was  quickly  defeated  and  slain. 


THE   BAYARD   OP   JAPAN.  55 

But  the  Taira,  though  they  had  been  driven  from 
the  capital,  had  still  many  adherents  in  the  land,  and 
were  earnestly  endeavoring  to  raise  an  army  in  the 
south  and  west.  Unfortunately  for  them,  they  had 
a  leader  to  deal  with  who  knew  the  value  of  celerity. 
Yoshitsune  laid  siege  to  the  fortified  palace  of  Fuku- 
wara,  within  which  the  Taira  leaders  lay  intrenched, 
and  pushed  the  siege  with  such  energy  that  in  a 
short  time  the  palace  was  taken  and  in  flames. 
Those  who  escaped  fled  to  the  castle  of  Yashima, 
which  their  active  enemy  also  besieged  and  burned. 
As  a  last  refuge  the  Taira  leaders  made  their  way  to 
the  Straits  of  Shimonoseki,  where  they  had  a  large 
fleet  of  junks. 

The  final  struggle  in  this  war  took  place  in  the 
fourth  month  of  the  year  1185.  Yoshitsune  had  with 
all  haste  got  together  a  fleet,  and  the  two  armies,  now 
afloat,  met  on  the  waters  of  the  strait  for  the  greatest 
naval  battle  that  Japan  had  ever  known.  The  Taira 
fleet  consisted  of  five  hundred  vessels,  which  held 
not  only  the  fighting  men,  but  their  mothers,  wives, 
and  children,  among  them  the  dethroned  mikado, 
a  child  six  years  of  age.  The  Minamoto  fleet  was 
composed  of  seven  hundred  junks,  containing  none 
but  men. 

In  the  battle  that  followed,  the  young  leader  of  the 
Minamoto  showed  the  highest  intrepidity.  The  fight 
began  with  a  fierce  onset  from  the  Taira,  which  drove 
back  their  foe.  With  voice  and  example  Yoshitsune 
encouraged  his  men.  For  an  interval  the  combat 
lulled.  Then  Wada,  a  noted  archer,  shot  an  arrow 
which  struck  the  junk  of  a  Taira  chief. 


56  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

"  Shoot  it  back !"  cried  the  chief. 

An  archer  plucked  it  from  the  wood,  fitted  it  to 
his  bow,  and  let  it  fly  at  the  Minamoto  fleet.  The 
shaft  grazed  the  helmet  of  one  warrior  and  pierced 
the  breast  of  another. 

"  Shoot  it  back !"  cried  Yoshitsune". 

"  It  is  short  and  weak,"  said  Wada,  plucking  it 
from  the  dead  man's  breast.  Taking  a  longer  shaft 
from  his  quiver,  he  shot  it  with  such  force  and  sure- 
ness  of  aim  that  it  passed  through  the  armor  and 
flesh  of  the  Taira  bowman  and  fell  into  the  sea 
beyond.  Yoshitsune  emptied  his  quiver  with  similar 
skill,  each  arrow  finding  a  victim,  and  soon  the  tide 
of  battle  turned. 

Treason  aided  the  Minamoto  in  their  victory.  In 
the  vessel  containing  the  son,  widow,  and  daughter 
of  Kiyomori,  and  the  young  mikado,  was  a  friend  of 
Yoshitsune,  who  had  agreed  upon  a  signal  by  which 
this  junk  could  be  known.  In  the  height  of  the 
struggle  the  signal  appeared.  Yoshitsune  at  once 
ordered  a  number  of  captains  to  follow  with  their 
boats,  and  bore  down  on  this  central  vessel  of  the 
Taira  fleet. 

Soon  the  devoted  vessel  was  surrounded  by  hostile 
junks,  and  armed  men  leaped  in  numbers  on  its 
deck.  A  Taira  man  sprang  upon  Yoshitsune,  sword 
in  hand,  but  he  saved  his  life  by  leaping  to  another 
junk,  while  his  assailant  plunged  to  death  in  the 
encrimsoned  waves.  Down  went  the  Taira  nobles 
before  the  swords  of  their  assailants.  The  widow 
of  Kiyomori,  determined  not  to  be  taken  alive,  seized 
the  youthful  mikado  and  leaped  into  the  sea.  Mune- 


THE   BAYARD   OP  JAPAN.  51 

mori,  Kiyomori's  son  and  the  head  of  the  Taira 
house,  was  taken,  with  many  nobles  and  ladies  of  the 
court. 

Still  the  battle  went  on.  Ship  after  ship  of  the 
Taira  fleet,  their  sides  crushed  by  the  prows  of  their 
opponents,  sunk  beneath  the  reddened  waters.  Others 
were  boarded  and  swept  clear  of  defenders  by  the 
sword.  Hundreds  perished,  women  and  children  as 
well  as  men.  Hundreds  more  were  taken  captive. 
The  waters  of  the  sea,  that  morning  clear  and 
sparkling,  were  now  the  color  of  blood,  and  the 
pride  of  the  Taira  clan  lay  buried  beneath  the 
waves  or  were  cast  up  by  the  unquiet  waters  upon 
the  strand.  With  that  fatal  day  the  Taira  vanished 
from  the  sight  of  men. 

Yoritomo  gave  the  cruel  order  that  no  male  of 
that  hated  family  should  be  left  alive,  and  armed 
murderers  sought  them  out  over  hill  and  vale,  slaying 
remorselessly  all  that  could  be  traced.  In  Kioto 
many  boy  children  of  the  clan  were  found,  all  of 
whom  were  slain.  A  few  of  the  Taira  name  escaped 
from  the  fleet  and  fled  to  Kiushiu,  where  they  hid 
in  the  lurking-places  of  the  mountains.  There,  in 
poverty  and  pride,  their  descendants  still  survive, 
having  remained  unknown  in  the  depths  of  their 
covert  until  about  a  century  ago. 

The  story  of  Yoshitsune,  which  began  in  such 
glory,  ends  in  treachery  and  ingratitude.  Yoritomo 
envied  the  brother  to  whose  valor  his  power  was 
largely  due.  Hatred  replaced  the  love  which  should 
have  filled  his  heart,  and  he  was  ready  to  believe 
any  calumny  against  the  noble  young  soldier. 


58  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

One  Kajiwara,  a  military  adviser  in  the  army, 
grew  incensed  at  Yoshitsune  for  acting  against 
his  advice,  and  hastened  to  Yoritomo  with  lies  and 
slanders.  The  shogiin,  too  ready  to  believe  these 
stories,  forbade  Yoshitsune  to  enter  the  city  on  his 
return  with  the  spoils  of  victory.  The  youthful 
victor  wrote  him  a  touching  letter,  which  is  still 
extant,  recounting  his  toils  and  dangers,  and  appeal- 
ing for  justice  and  the  clearance  from  suspicion  of 
his  fair  fame. 

Weary  of  waiting,  he  went  to  Kioto,  where  he 
found  himself  pursued  by  assassins.  He  escaped  into 
Yamato,  but  was  again  pursued.  Once  more  he  es- 
caped and  concealed  himself,  but  spies  traced  him 
out  and  the  son  of  his  host  tried  to  murder  him. 

What  finally  became  of  the  hero  is  not  known. 
The  popular  belief  is  that  he  killed  himself  with  his 
own  hand,  after  slaying  his  wife  and  children.  Some 
believe  that  he  escaped  to  Yezo,  where  for  years  he 
dwelt  among  the  Ainos,  who  to-day  worship  his 
spirit  and  have  erected  a  shrine  over  what  they 
claim  to  be  his  grave.  The  preposterous  story  is 
even  advanced  that  he  fled  to  Asia  and  became  the 
great  Mongol  conqueror  Genghis  Khan. 

Whatever  became  of  him,  his  name  is  immortal  in 
Japan.  Every  Japanese  youth  looks  upon  the  youth- 
ful martyr  as  the  ideal  hero  of  his  race,  his  form 
and  deeds  are  glorified  in  art  and  song,  and  while  a 
martial  thought  survives  in  Japan  the  name  of  this 
Bayard  of  the  island  empire  will  be  revered. 


THE  HOJO  TYRANNY. 

UNDER  the  rule  of  Yoritomo  Japan  had  two  capi- 
tals and  two  governments,  the  mikado  ruling  at 
Kioto,  the  shogun  at  Kamakura,  the  magnificent 
city  which  Yoritomo  had  founded.  The  great  family 
of  the  Minamoto  was  now  supreme,  all  its  rivals 
being  destroyed.  A  special  tax  for  the  support  of 
the  troops  yielded  a  large  revenue  to  the  shoguns ; 
courts  were  established  at  Kamakura ;  the  priests, 
who  had  made  much  trouble,  were  disarmed;  a 
powerful  permanent  army  was  established ;  a  mili- 
tary chief  was  placed  in  each  province  beside  the 
civil  governor,  and  that  military  government  was 
founded  which  for  nearly  seven  centuries  robbed  the 
mikado  of  all  but  the  semblance  of  power.  Thus  it 
came  that  the  shogun,  or  the  tycoon  as  he  after- 
wards named  himself,  appeared  to  be  the  emperor  of 
Japan. 

We  have  told  how  Yoritomo,  once  a  poor  exile, 
became  the  lord  of  the  empire.  After  conquering 
all  his  enemies  he  visited  Kioto,  where  he  astonished 
the  court  of  the  mikado  by  the  splendor  of  his 
retinue  and  the  magnificence  of  his  military  shows, 
athletic  games,  and  ceremonial  banquets.  The  two 
rulers  exchanged  the  costliest  presents,  the  emperor 
conferred  all  authority  upon  the  general,  and  when 
Yoritomo  returned  to  his  capital  city  he  held  in  his 

59 


60  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

control  the  ruling  power  of  the  realm.  All  generals 
were  called  shoguns,  but  he  was  the  shogun,  his  title 
being  Sei-i  Tai  Shogun  (Barbarian-subjugating  Great 
General).  Though  really  a  vassal  of  the  emperor, 
he  wielded  the  power  of  the  emperor  himself,  and 
from  1192  until  1868  the  mikados  were  insignificant 
puppets  and  the  shoguns  the  real  lords  of  the  land. 
Such  was  the  strange  progress  of  political  evolution 
in  Japan.  The  mikado  was  still  emperor,  but  the 
holders  of  this  title  lay  buried  in  sloth  or  religious 
fanaticism  and  let  their  subordinates  rule. 

And  now  we  have  another  story  to  tell  concern- 
ing this  strange  political  evolution.  As  the  shoguns 
became  paramount  over  the  mikados,  so  did  the 
Hojo,  the  regents  of  the  shoguns,  become  paramount 
over  them,  and  for  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  these  vassals  of  a  vassal  were  the  virtual  em- 
perors of  Japan.  This  condition  of  affairs  gives  a 
curious  complication  to  the  history  of  that  country. 

In  a  previous  tale  it  has  been  said  that  the  father 
of  Masago,  the  beautiful  wife  of  the  exiled  prince,  was 
named  Hojo  Tokimasa.  He  was  a  man  of  ability  and 
was  much  esteemed  and  trusted  by  his  son-in-law. 
After  the  death  of  Yoritomo  and  the  accession  of 
his  son,  Tokimasa  became  chief  of  the  council  of 
state,  and  brought  up  the  young  shogun  in  idleness 
and  dissipation,  wielding  the  power  in  his  name. 
When  the  boy  reached  manhood  and  began  to  show 
ambition  to  rule,  Tokimasa  had  him  exiled  to  a 
temple  and  soon  after  assassinated.  His  brother, 
then  twelve  years  old,  succeeded  as  shogun.  He 
cared  nothing  for  power,  but  much  for  enjoyment, 


THE   HOJO   TYRANNY.  61 

and  the  Hqjo  let  him  live  his  life  of  pleasure  while 
they  held  the  control  of  affairs.  In  the  end  he  was 
murdered  by  the  son  of  the  slain  shogun,  who  was 
in  his  turn  killed  by  a  soldier,  and  thus  the  family 
of  Yoritomo  became  extinct. 

From  that  time  forward  the  Hojo  continued  pre- 
eminent. They  were  able  men,  and  governed  the 
country  well.  The  shoguns  were  chosen  by  them 
from  the  Minamoto  clan,  boys  being  selected,  some 
of  them  but  two  or  three  years  old,  who  were  de- 
posed as  soon  as  they  showed  a  desire  to  rule.  The 
same  was  the  case  with  the  mikados,  who  were  also 
creatures  of  the  Hojo  clan.  One  of  them  who  had 
been  deposed  raised  an  army  and  fought  for  his 
throne.  He  was  defeated  and  exiled  to  a  distant 
monastery.  Others  were  deposed,  and  neither  mi- 
kados nor  shoguns  were  permitted  to  reign  except 
as  puppets  in  the  hands  of  the  powerful  regents  of 
the  realm. 

None  of  the  Hojo  ever  claimed  the  office  of 
shogun.  They  were  content  to  serve  as  the  power 
behind  the  throne.  As  time  went  on,  the  usual 
result  of  such  a  state  of  affairs  showed  itself.  The 
able  men  of  the  Hojo  family  were  followed  by  weak 
and  vicious  ones.  Their  tyranny  and  misgovern- 
ment  grew  unbearable.  They  gave  themselves  up  to 
luxury  and  debauchery,  oppressed  the  people  by 
taxes  to  obtain  means  for  their  costly  pleasures, 
and  crushed  beneath  their  oppressive  rule  the  em- 
peror, the  shogun,  and  the  people  alike.  Their  cup 
of  vice  and  tyranny  at  length  overflowed.  The  day 
of  retribution  was  at  hand. 


62  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

The  son  of  the  mikado  Go-Daigo  was  the  first  to 
rebel.  His  plans  were  discovered  by  spies,  and  his 
father  ordered  him  to  retire  to  a  monastery,  in 
which,  however,  he  continued  to  plot  revenge.  Go- 
Daigo  himself  next  struck  for  the  power  of  which 
he  possessed  but  the  name.  Securing  the  aid  of 
the  Buddhist  priests,  he  fortified  Kasagi,  a  strong- 
hold in  Yamato.  He  failed  in  his  effort.  In  the 
following  year  (1331)  an  army  attacked  and  took 
Kasagi,  and  the  emperor  was  taken  prisoner  and 
banished  to  Oki. 

Connected  with  his  exile  is  a  story  of  much 
dramatic  interest.  While  Go-Daigo  was  being  borne 
in  a  palanquin  to  his  place  of  banishment,  under 
a  guard  of  soldiers,  Kojima,  a  young  noble  of  his 
party,  attempted  his  rescue.  Gathering  a  party  of 
followers,  he  occupied  a  pass  in  the  hills  through 
which  he  expected  that  the  train  would  make  its 
way.  But  another  pass  was  taken,  and  he  waited  in 
vain. 

Learning  their  mistake,  his  followers,  disheartened 
by  their  failure,  deserted  him.  But  the  faithful  vassal 
cautiously  followed  the  train,  making  various  efforts 
to  approach  and  whisper  hope  to  the  imperial  exile. 
He  was  prevented  by  the  vigilance  of  the  guard,  and 
finally,  finding  that  either  rescue  or  speech  was  hope- 
less, he  hit  upon  a  plan  to  baffle  the  vigilance  of  the 
guards  and  let  the  emperor  know  that  friends  were 
still  at  work  in  his  behalf. 

Under  the  shadows  of  night  he  secretly  entered 
the  garden  of  the  inn  where  the  party  was  resting, 
and  there  scraped  off  the  outer  bark  of  a  cherry- 


LETTER-WRITING  IN  JAPAN. 


THE   HOJO   TYRANNY.  63 

tree,  laying  bare  the  smooth  -white  layer  within. 
On  this  he  wrote  the  following  stanza  : 

"  O  Heaven,  destroy  not  Kosen 
While  Hanrei  still  lives." 

The  next  morning  the  soldiers  noticed  the  writing 
on  the  tree.  Curious  to  learn  its  meaning,  but  un- 
able to  read,  they  showed  it  to  their  prisoner,  who, 
being  familiar  with  the  quotation,  caught,  with  an 
impulse  of  joy,  its  concealed  significance.  Kosen 
was  an  ancient  king  of  China  who  had  been  deposed 
and  made  prisoner,  but  was  afterwards  restored  to 
power  by  his  faithful  follower  Hanrei.  Glad  to  learn 
that  loyal  friends  were  seeking  his  release,  the  em- 
peror went  to  his  lonely  exile  with  renewed  hope. 
Kojima  afterwards  died  on  the  battle-field  during  the 
war  for  the  restoration  of  the  exiled  mikado. 

But  another  valiant  soldier  was  soon  in  the  field 
in  the  interest  of  the  exile.  Nitta  Yoshisada,  a  cap- 
tain of  the  Hojo  forces,  had  been  sent  to  besiege 
Kusunoki,  a  vassal  of  the  mikado,  who  held  a  strong- 
hold for  his  imperial  lord.  Nitta,  roused  by  con- 
science to  a  sense  of  his  true  duty,  refused  to  fight 
against  the  emperor,  deserted  from  the  army,  and, 
obtaining  a  commission  from  Go-Daigo's  son,  who 
was  concealed  in  the  mountains,  he  returned  to  his 
native  place,  raised  the  standard  of  revolt  against 
the  Hojo,  and  soon  found  himself  at  the  head  of  a 
considerable  force. 

In  thirteen  days  after  raising  the  banner  of  revolt 
in  favor  of  the  mikado  he  reached  the  vicinity  of 
Kamakura,  acting  under  the  advice  of  his  brother, 


64  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

who  counselled  him  to  beard  the  lion  in  his  den. 
The  tyranny  of  the  Hojo  had  spread  far  and  wide 
the  spirit  of  rebellion,  and  thousands  flocked  to  the 
standard  of  the  young  general, — a  long  white  pen- 
nant, near  whose  top  were  two  bars  of  black,  and 
under  them  a  circle  bisected  with  a  zone  of  black. 

On  the  eve  of  the  day  fixed  for  the  attack  on  the 
city,  Nitta;  stood  on  the  sea-shore  in  front  of  his 
army,  before  him  the  ocean  with  blue  islands  visible 
afar,  behind  him  lofty  mountain  peaks,  chief  among 
them  the  lordly  Fusiyama.  Here,  removing  his 
helmet,  he  uttered  the  following  words: 

"  Our  heavenly  son  [the  mikado]  has  been  deposed 
by  his  traitorous  subject,  and  is  now  an  exile  afar  in 
the  west.  I  have  not  been  able  to  look  on  this  act 
unmoved,  and  have  come  to  punish  the  traitors  in 
yonder  city  by  the  aid  of  these  loyal  troops.  I 
humbly  pray  you,  O  god  of  the  ocean  waves,  to 
look  into  the  purposes  of  my  heart.  If  you  favor 
me  and  my  cause,  then  bid  the  tide  to  ebb  and  open 
a  path  beside  the  sea." 

With  these  words  he  drew  his  sword  and  cast  it 
with  all  his  strength  into  the  water.  For  a  moment 
the  golden  hilt  gleamed  in  the  rays  of  the  setting 
sun,  and  then  the  blade  sank  from  sight.  But  with 
the  dawn  of  the  next  day  the  soldiers  saw  with 
delight  that  there  had  been  a  great  ebb  in  the  tide, 
and  that  the  dry  strand  offered  a  wide  high-road 
past  the  rocky  girdle  that  enclosed  Kamakura.  With 
triumphant  shouts  they  marched  along  this  ocean 
path,  following  a  leader  whom  they  now  believed  to 
be  the  chosen  avenger  of  the  gods. 


THE   HOJO   TYRANNY.  65 

From  two  other  sides  the  city  of  the  shogun  was 
attacked.  The  defence  was  as  fierce  as  the  assault, 
but  everywhere  victory  rested  upon  the  white  banner 
of  loyalty.  Nitta's  army  pressed  resistlessly  forward, 
and  the  Hojo  found  themselves  defeated  and  their 
army  destroyed.  Fire  completed  what  the  sword 
had  begun,  destructive  flames  attacked  the  frame 
dwellings  of  the  city,  and  in  a  few  hours  the  great 
capital  of  the  shoguns  and  their  powerful  regents 
was  a  waste  of  ashes. 

Many  of  the  vassals  of  the  Hojo  killed  themselves 
rather  than  surrender,  among  them  a  noble  named 
Ando,  whose  niece  was  Nitta's  wife.  She  wrote  him 
a  letter  begging  him  to  surrender. 

"  My  niece  is  the  daughter  of  a  samurai  house," 
the  old  man  indignantly  exclaimed.  "  How  can  she 
make  so  shameless  a  request  ?  And  why  did  Nitta, 
who  is  himself  a  samurai,  permit  her  to  do  so?" 
Wrapping  the  letter  around  his  sword,  he  plunged 
the  blade  into  his  body  and  fell  dead. 

While  Nitta  was  winning  this  signal  victory, 
others  were  in  arms  for  the  mikado  elsewhere,  and 
everywhere  the  Hojo  power  went  down.  The 
people  in  all  sections  of  the  empire  rose  against  the 
agents  of  the  tyrants  and  put  them  to  death,  many 
thousands  of  the  Hojo  clan  being  slain  and  their 
power  utterly  destroyed.  They  had  ruled  Japan 
from  the  death  of  Yoritomo,  in  1199,  to  1333.  They 
have  since  been  execrated  in  Japan,  the  feeling  of 
the  people  being  displayed  in  their  naming  one  of  the 
destructive  insects  of  the  island  the  Hojo  bug.  Yet 
among  the  Hojo  were  many  able  rulers,  and  under 

5 


66  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

them  the  empire  was  kept  in  peace  and  order  for 
over  a  century,  while  art  and  literature  flourished 
and  many  of  the  noblest  monuments  of  Japanese 
architecture  arose. 

Go-Daigo  was  now  recalled  from  exile  and  re- 
placed on  the  imperial  throne.  For  the  first  time 
for  centuries  the  mikado  had  come  to  his  own  and 
held  the  power  of  the  empire  in  his  hands.  With 
judgment  and  discretion  he  might  have  restored  the 
old  government  of  Japan. 

But  he  lacked  those  important  qualities,  and 
quickly  lost  the  power  he  had  won.  After  a  passing 
gleam  of  its  old  splendor  the  mikadoate  sank  into 
eclipse  again. 

Go-Daigo  was  ruined  by  listening  to  a  flatterer, 
whom  he  raised  to  the  highest  power,  while  he 
rewarded  those  who  had  rescued  him  with  unim- 
portant domains.  A  fierce  war  followed,  in  which 
Ashikaga,  the  flatterer,  was  the  victor,  defeating  and 
destroying  his  foes.  Go-Daigo  had  pronounced  him 
a  rebel.  In  return  he  was  himself  deposed,  and  a 
new  emperor,  whom  the  usurper  could  control,  was 
raised  to  the  vacant  throne.  For  three  years  only 
had  the  mikado  remained  supreme.  Then  for  a  long 
period  the  Ashikagas  held  the  reins  of  power,  and  a 
tyranny  like  that  of  the  Hojo  existed  in  the  land. 


THE   TARTAR    INVASION   OF 
JAPAN. 

IN  all  its  history  only  one  serious  effort  has  been 
made  to  conquer  the  empire  of  Japan.  It  ended  in 
such  dire  disaster  to  the  invaders  that  no  nation  has 
ever  repeated  it.  During  the  thirteenth  century 
Asia  was  thrown  into  turmoil  by  the  dreadful  out- 
break of  the  Mongol  Tartars  under  the  great  con- 
queror Genghis  Khan.  Nearly  all  Asia  was  over- 
run, Russia  was  subdued,  China  was  conquered,  and 
envoys  were  sent  to  Japan  demanding  tribute  and 
homage  to  the  great  khan. 

Six  times  the  demand  was  made,  and  six  times  re- 
fused. Then  an  army  of  ten  thousand  men  was  sent 
to  Japan,  but  was  soon  driven  from  the  country  in 
defeat.  Kublai  Khan,  the  Mongol  emperor  of  China, 
now  sent  nine  envoys  to  the  shogun,  bidding  them 
to  stay  until  they  received  an  answer  to  his  demand. 
They  stayed  much  longer  than  he  intended,  for  the 
Hojo,  who  were  then  in  power,  cut  off  their  heads. 
Once  again  the  Chinese  emperor  sent  to  demand 
tribute,  and  once  again  the  heads  of  the  envoys  were 
severed  from  their  bodies. 

Acts  like  these  could  have  only  one  result,  and  the 
Japanese  made  rapid  preparations  to  meet  the  great 
power  which  had  conquered  Asia.  A  large  army 
was  levied,  forts  and  defences  were  put  in  order, 

67 


68  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

stores  gathered  in  great  quantities,  and  weapons  and 
munitions  of  war  abundantly  prepared.  A  fleet  of 
junks  was  built,  and  all  the  resources  of  the  empire 
were  employed.  Japan,  though  it  had  waged  no 
wars  abroad,  had  amply  learned  the  art  of  war  from 
its  frequent  hostilities  at  home,  and  was  well  provided 
with  brave  soldiers  and  skilful  generals.  The  khan 
was  not  likely  to  find  its  conquest  an  easy  task. 

While  the  islanders  were  thus  busy,  their  foes 
were  as  actively  engaged.  The  proud  emperor  had 
made  up  his  mind  to  crush  this  little  realm  that  so 
insolently  defied  his  power.  A  great  fleet  was  made 
ready,  containing  thirty-five  hundred  vessels  in  all, 
in  which  embarked  an  army  of  one  hundred  thou- 
sand Chinese  and  Tartars  and  seven  thousand  Co- 
rean  troops.  It  was  the  seventh  month  of  the  year 
1281  when  the  expectant  sentinels  of  Japan  caught 
the  glint  of  the  sun's  rays  on  the  far-off  throng  of 
sails,  which  whitened  the  seas  as  they  came  on  with 
streaming  banners  and  the  warlike  clang  of  brass 
and  steel. 

The  army  of  Japan,  which  lay  encamped  on  the 
hills  back  of  the  fortified  city  of  Daizaifu,  in  the 
island  of  Kiushiu,  and  gathered  in  ranks  along  the 
adjoining  coast,  gazed  with  curiosity  and  dread  on 
this  mighty  fleet,  far  the  largest  they  had  ever  seen. 
Many  of  the  vessels  were  of  enormous  size,  as  it 
seemed  to  their  unaccustomed  eyes,  and  were  armed 
with  engines  of  war  such  as  they  had  never  before 
beheld.  The  light  boats  of  the  Japanese  had  little 
hope  of  success  against  these  huge  junks,  and  many 
of  those  that  ventured  from  shelter  were  sunk  by 


THE   TARTAR    INVASION   OP   JAPAN.  69 

the  darts  and  stones  flung  from  the  Mongol  catapults. 
The  enemy  could  not  be  matched  upon  the  sea ;  it 
remained  to  prevent  him  from  setting  foot  upon 
shore. 

Yet  the  courage  and  daring  of  the  island  warriors 
could  not  be  restrained.  A  party  of  thirty  swam 
out  and  boarded  a  junk,  where  their  keen-edged 
swords  proved  more  than  a  match  for  the  Tartar 
bows  and  spears,  so  that  they  returned  with  the 
heads  of  the  crew.  A  second  party  tried  to  repeat 
a  like  adventure,  but  the  Tartars  were  now  on  the 
alert  and  killed  them  all.  One  captain,  with  a 
picked  crew,  steered  out  in  broad  daylight  to  a 
Chinese  junk,  heedless  of  a  shower  of  darts,  one  of 
which  took  off  his  arm.  In  a  minute  more  he  and 
his  men  were  on  the  deck  and  were  driving  back  the 
crew  in  a  fierce  hand-to-hand  encounter.  Before 
other  vessels  of  the  fleet  could  come  up,  they  had 
fired  the  captured  junk  and  were  off  again,  bearing 
with  them  twenty-one  heads  of  the  foe. 

To  prevent  such  attacks  all  advanced  boats  were 
withdrawn  and  the  fleet  was  linked  together  with 
iron  chains,  while  with  catapults  and  great  bows 
heavy  darts  and  stones  were  showered  on  approach- 
ing Japanese  boats,  sinking  many  of  them  and  de- 
stroying their  crews.  But  all  efforts  of  the  Tartars 
to  land  were  bravely  repulsed,  and  such  detachments 
as  reached  the  shore  were  driven  into  the  sea  before 
they  could  prepare  for  defence,  over  two  thousand 
of  the  enemy  falling  in  these  preliminary  attempts. 
With  the  utmost  haste  a  long  line  of  fortifications, 
consisting  of  earthworks  and  palisades,  had  been 


70  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

thrown  up  for  miles  along  the  shore,  and  behind 
these  defences  the  island  soldiers  defied  their  foes. 

Among  the  defenders  was  a  captain,  Michiari  by 
name,  whose  hatred  of  the  Mongols  led  him  to  a 
deed  of  the  most  desperate  daring.  Springing  over 
the  breastworks,  he  defied  the  barbarians  to  mortal 
combat.  Then,  filling  two  boats  with  others  as 
daring  as  himself,  he  pushed  out  to  the  fleet. 

Both  sides  looked  on  in  amazement.  "  Is  the  man 
mad?"  said  the  Japanese.  "Are  those  two  little 
boats  coming  to  attack  our  whole  fleet?"  asked  the 
Mongols.  "  They  must  be  deserters,  who  are  coming 
to  surrender." 

Under  this  supposition  the  boats  were  permitted 
to  approach  unharmed,  their  course  being  directed 
towards  a  large  Tartar  junk.  A  near  approach  be- 
ing thus  made,  grappling-irons  were  flung  out,  and 
in  a  minute  more  the  daring  assailants  were  leaping 
on  board  the  junk. 

Taken  by  surprise,  the  Tartars  were  driven  back, 
the  two-handed  keen-edged  swords  of  the  assailants 
making  havoc  in  their  ranks.  The  crew  made  what 
defence  they  could,  but  the  sudden  and  unlooked-for 
assault  had  put  them  at  disadvantage,  and  before  the 
adjoining  ships  could  come  to  their  aid  the  junk  was 
in  flames  and  the  boats  of  the  victors  had  put  off 
for  land.  With  them  as  prisoner  they  carried  one 
of  the  highest  officers  in  the  invading  fleet. 

Yet  these  skirmishes  did  little  in  reducing  the 
strength  of  the  foe,  and  had  not  the  elements  come 
to  the  aid  of  Japan  the  issue  of  the  affair  might 
have  been  serious  for  the  island  empire.  While  the 


THE   TARTAR   INVASION   OP  JAPAN.  71 

soldiers  were  fighting  the  priests  were  praying,  and 
the  mikado  sent  a  priestly  messenger  to  the  shrines 
at  Ise,  bearing  his  petition  to  the  gods.  It  was  noon- 
day, and  the  sky  perfectly  clear,  when  he  offered  the 
prayer,  but  immediately  afterwards  a  broad  streak 
of  cloud  rose  on  the  horizon,  and  soon  the  sky  was 
overcast  with  dense  and  rolling  masses,  portending  a 
frightful  storm. 

It  was  one  of  the  typhoons  that  annually  visit  that 
coast  and  against  whose  appalling  fury  none  but  the 
strongest  ships  can  stand.  It  fell  with  all  its  force 
on  the  Chinese  fleet,  lifting  the  junks  like  straws  on 
the  great  waves  which  suddenly  arose,  tossing  them 
together,  hurling  some  upon  the  shore,  and  forcing 
others  bodily  beneath  the  sea.  Hundreds  of  the  light 
craft  were  sunk,  and  corpses  were  heaped  on  the 
shore  in  multitudes.  Many  of  the  vessels  were 
driven  to  sea,  few  or  none  of  which  ever  reached 
land.  Many  others  were  wrecked  upon  Taka  Island. 
Here  the  survivors,  after  the  storm  subsided,  began 
cutting  down  trees  and  building  boats,  in  the  hope 
of  reaching  Corea.  But  they  were  attacked  by  the 
Japanese  with  such  fury  that  all  were  slain  but 
three,  whose  lives  were  spared  that  they  might  bear 
back  the  news  to  their  emperor  and  tell  him  how 
the  gods  had  fought  for  Japan. 

The  lesson  was  an  effective  one.  The  Chinese 
have  never  since  attempted  the  conquest  of  Japan, 
and  it  is  the  boast  of  the  people  of  that  country 
that  no  invading  army  has  ever  set  foot  upon  their 
shores.  Six  centuries  afterwards  the  case  was  to  be 
reversed  and  a  Japanese  army  to  land  on  Chinese  soil. 


72  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

Great  praise  was  given  to  the  Hojo  then  in  control 
at  Kamakura  for  his  energy  and  valor  in  repelling  the 
invaders.  But  the  chief  honor  was  paid  to  the  gods 
enshrined  at  Ise,  who  were  thenceforward  adored  as 
the  guardians  of  the  winds  and  the  seas.  To  this 
day  the  invasion  of  the  Mongols  is  vividly  remem- 
bered in  Kiushiu,  and  the  mother  there  hushes  her 
fretful  babe  with  the  question,  "  Little  one,  why  do 
you  cry?  Do  you  think  the  Mogu  are  coming?" 

It  may  be  well  here  to  say  that  the  story  of  this 
invasion  is  told  by  Marco  Polo,  who  was  at  the  court 
of  Kublai  Khan,  the  Mongol  conqueror  of  China,  at 
the  time  it  took  place,  and  that  his  tale  differs  in 
many  respects  from  that  of  the  Japanese  historians. 
Each  party  is  apparently  making  the  best  of  its  side 
of  the  affair. 

According  to  Marco  Polo's  account,  the  failure  of 
the  expedition  was  due  to  jealousy  between  the  two 
officers  in  command.  He  states  that  one  Japanese 
fortification  was  taken  and  all  within  put  to  the 
sword,  except  two,  whose  flesh  was  charmed  against 
the  sword  and  who  could  be  killed  only  by  being 
beaten  to  death  with  great  clubs.  As  for  those  who 
reached  Taka  Island,  they  contrived  by  strategy  to 
gain  possession  of  the  boats  of  the  assailing  Japanese, 
by  whose  aid,  and  that  of  the  flags  which  the  boats 
flew,  they  captured  the  chief  city  of  Japan.  Here  for 
six  months  they  were  closely  besieged,  and  finally 
surrendered  on  condition  that  their  lives  should  be 
spared. 


NOB  UNA  G A  AND  THE  FALL  OF 
THE  BUDDHISTS. 

FOR  more  than  two  centuries  the  Ashikaga  lorded 
it  over  Japan,  as  the  Hojo  had  done  before  them,  and 
the  mikados  were  tools  in  their  strong  hands.  Then 
arose  a  man  who  overthrew  this  powerful  clan.  This 
man,  Nobunaga  by  name,  was  a  descendant  of  Kiyo- 
mori,  the  great  leader  of  the  Taira  clan,  his  direct 
ancestor  being  one  of  the  few  who  escaped  from  the 
great  Minamoto  massacre. 

The  father  of  this  Taira  chief  was  a  soldier  whose 
valor  had  won  him  a  large  estate.  Nobunaga  added 
to  it,  built  himself  a  strong  castle,  and  became  the 
friend  and  patron  of  the  last  of  the  Ashikaga,  whom 
he  made  shogun.  (The  Ashikaga  were  descendants 
of  the  Minamoto,  who  alone  had  hereditary  claim  to 
this  high  office.)  But  Nobunaga  remained  the  power 
behind  the  throne,  and,  a  quarrel  arising  between 
him  and  the  shogun,  he  deposed  the  latter,  and  be- 
came himself  the  ruler  of  Japan.  After  two  hundred 
and  thirty-eight  years  of  dominion  the  lordship  of 
the  Ashikaga  thus  came  to  an  end. 

Of  this  great  Japanese  leader  we  are  told,  "  He 
was  a  prince  of  large  stature,  but  of  weak  and  deli- 
cate complexion,  with  a  heart  and  soul  that  supplied 
all  other  wants ;  ambitious  above  all  mankind ;  brave, 
generous,  and  bold,  and  not  without  many  excellent 

73 


74  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

moral  virtues ;  inclined  to  justice/  and  an  enemy  to 
treason.  With  a  quick  and  penetrating  wit,  he 
seemed  cut  out  for  business.  Excelling  in  military 
discipline,  he  was  esteemed  the  fittest  to  command 
an  army,  manage  a  siege,  fortify  a  town,  or  mark 
out  a  camp  of  any  general  in  Japan,  never  using  any 
head  but  his  own.  If  he  asked  advice,  it  was  more 
to  know  their  hearts  than  to  profit  by  their  advice. 
He  sought  to  see  into  others  and  to  conceal  his  own 
counsel,  being  very  secret  in  his  designs.  He  laughed 
at  the  worship  of  the  gods,  being  convinced  that  the 
bonzes  were  impostors  abusing  the  simplicity  of  the 
people  and  screening  their  own  debauches  under  the 
name  of  religion." 

Such  was  the  man  who  by  genius  and  strength  of 
will  now  rose  to  the  head  of  affairs.  Not  being 
of  the  Minamoto  family,  he  did  not  seek  to  make 
himself  shogun,  and  for  forty  years  this  office  ceased 
to  exist.  He  ruled  in  the  name  of  the  mikado,  but 
held  all  the  power  of  the  realm. 

The  good  fortune  of  Nobunaga  lay  largely  in  his 
wise  choice  of  men.  Under  him  were  four  generals, 
so  admirable  yet  so  diverse  in  military  ability  that 
the  people  gave  them  the  distinctive  nicknames  of 
"  Cotton,"  "  Kice,"  "  Attack,"  and  ';  Ketreat,"  Cotton, 
which  can  be  put  to  a  multitude  of  uses,  indicated 
the  fertility  in  resources  of  the  first;  while  the  second 
made  himself  as  necessary  as  rice,  which  people  can- 
not live  a  day  without.  The  strength  of  the  third 
lay  in  the  boldness  of  his  attacks ;  of  the  fourth,  in 
the  skill  of  his  retreats.  Of  these  four,  the  first, 
named  Hideyosbi,  rose  to  great  fame.  A  fifth  was 


NOBUNAGA  AND  THE  FALL  OF  THE  BUDDHISTS.   75 

afterwards  added,  Tokugawa  lyeyasu,  also  a  famous 
name  in  Japan. 

It  was  through  his  dealings  with  the  Buddhists 
that  Nobunaga  made  himself  best  known  in  history. 
He  had  lived  among  them  in  his  early  years,  and 
had  learned  to  hate  and  despise  them.  Having  been 
educated  in  the  Shinto  faith,  the  ancient  religion  of 
Japan,  he  looked  on  the  priests  of  Buddhism  as 
enemies  to  the  true  faith.  The  destruction  of  these 
powerful  sectaries  was,  therefore,  one  of  the  great 
purposes  of  his  life. 

Nobunaga  had  other  reasons  than  these  for  de- 
stroying the  power  of  the  bonzes.  During  the  long 
period  of  the  Ashikagas  these  cunning  ecclesiastics 
had  risen  to  great  power.  Their  monasteries  had 
become  fortresses,  with  moats  and  strong  stone  walls. 
Internally  these  were  like  arsenals,  and  an  army 
could  readily  be  equipped  from  them  with  weapons, 
while  many  of  the  priests  were  daring  leaders. 
During  the  civil  wars  they  served  the  side  that 
promised  them  the  most  spoil  or  power.  Rivals 
among  them  often  fought  battles  of  their  own,  in 
which  hundreds  were  killed  and  towns  and  temples 
burned.  So  great  were  their  authority,  their  inso- 
lence, and  their  licentiousness  that  their  existence  had 
become  an  evil  in  the  land,  and  Nobunaga  determined 
to  teach  them  a  lesson  they  would  not  soon  forget. 

Of  the  monasteries,  the  most  extensive  was  that 
of  Hiyeizan,  on  Lake  Biwa.  Within  its  territoiy 
lay  thirteen  valleys  and  more  than  five  hundred 
temples,  shrines,  and  dwellings,  the  grounds  of  which 
were  adorned  in  the  highest  style  of  landscape  art. 


76  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

The  monks  here  were  numbered  by  thousands,  with 
whom  religious  service  was  a  gorgeous  ceremonial 
mockery,  and  who  revelled  in  luxury,  feasted  on 
forbidden  viands,  drank  to  inebriety,  and  indulged 
in  every  form  of  licentiousness.  They  used  their 
influence  in  rousing  the  clans  to  war,  from  which 
they  hoped  to  draw  new  spoils  for  their  unrighteous 
enjoyments,  while  screening  themselves  from  danger 
behind  the  cloak  of  the  priesthood. 

It  was  against  this  monastery  that  the  wrath  of 
Nobunaga  was  most  strongly  aroused.  Marching 
against  it  in  1571,  he  bade  his  generals  set  it  on 
fire.  The  officers  stood  aghast  at  the  order,  which 
seemed  to  them  likely  to  call  down  the  vengeance  of 
Heaven  upon  their  heads.  With  earnest  protests 
they  begged  him  not  to  do  so  unholy  an  act. 

"  Since  this  monastery  was  built,  now  nearly  a 
thousand  years  ago,"  they  said,  "  it  has  been  vigilant 
against  the  power  of  the  spirits  of  evil.  No  one  has 
dared  in  all  that  time  to  lift  a  hand  against  these 
holy  buildings.  Can  you  design  to  do  so  ?" 

"  Yes,"  answered  Nobunaga,  sternly.  "  I  have  put 
down  the  villains  that  distracted  the  country,  and  I 
intend  to  bring  peace  upon  the  land  and  restore  the 
power  of  the  mikado.  The  bonzes  have  opposed  my 
efforts  and  aided  my  enemies.  I  sent  them  a  mes- 
senger and  gave  them  the  chance  to  act  with  loyalty, 
but  they  failed  to  listen  to  my  words,  and  resisted 
the  army  of  the  emperor,  aiding  the  wicked  robbers. 
Does  not  this  make  them  thieves  and  villains?  If  I 
let  them  now  escape,  this  trouble  will  continue  for- 
ever, and  I  have  allowed  them  to  remain  on  this 


NOBUNAGA  AND  THE  FALL  OF  THE  BUDDHISTS.   77 

mountain  only  that  I  might  destroy  them.  That  is 
not  all.  I  have  heard  that  these  priests  fail  to  keep 
their  own  rules.  They  eat  fish  and  the  strong-smell- 
ing vegetables  which  Buddha  prohibited.  They  keep 
concubines,  and  do  not  even  read  the  sacred  books 
of  their  faith.  How  can  such  as  these  put  down 
evil  and  preserve  holiness?  It  is  my  command 
that  you  surround  and  burn  their  dwellings  and  see 
that  none  of  them  escape  alive." 

Thus  bidden,  the  generals  obeyed.  The  grounds 
of  the  monastery  were  surrounded,  and  on  the  next 
day  the  temples  and  shrines  were  set  on  fire  and  the 
soldiers  remorselessly  cut  down  all  they  met.  The 
scene  of  massacre  and  conflagration  that  ensued  was 
awful  to  behold.  None  were  spared,  neither  young 
nor  old,  man,  woman,  nor  child.  The  sword  and 
spear  were  wielded  without  mercy,  and  when  the 
butchery  ended  not  a  soul  of  the  multitude  of  in- 
mates was  left  alive. 

One  more  great  centre  of  Buddhism  remained  to 
be  dealt  with,  that  of  the  monastery  and  temple  of 
Houguanji,  whose  inmates  had  for  years  hated  No- 
bunaga  and  sided  with  his  foes,  while  they  made 
their  stronghold  the  hiding-place  of  his  enemies. 
Finally,  when  some  of  his  favorite  captains  had  been 
killed  by  lurking  foes,  who  fled  from  pursuit  into 
the  monastery,  he  determined  to  deal  with  this 
haunt  of  evil  as  he  had  dealt  with  Hiyeizan. 

But  this  place  was  not  to  be  so  easily  taken.  It 
was  strongly  fortified,  and  could  be  captured  only  by 
siege.  Within  the  five  fortresses  of  which  it  was 
composed  were  many  thousands  of  priests  and  war- 


78  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

riors,  women  and  children,  and  a  still  more  frightful 
massacre  than  that  of  Hiyeizan  was  threatened. 
The  place  was  so  closely  surrounded  that  all  escape 
seemed  cut  off,  but  under  cover  of  the  darkness  of 
night  and  amid  a  fierce  storm  several  thousand  of 
the  people  made  their  way  from  one  of  the  forts. 
They  failed,  however,  in  their  attempt,  being  pur- 
sued, overtaken,  and  slaughtered.  Soon  after  a 
junk  laden  with  human  ears  and  noses  came  close 
under  the  walls  of  the  castle,  that  the  inmates  might 
learn  the  fate  of  their  late  friends. 

Vigorously  the  siege  went  on.  A  sortie  of  the 
garrison  was  repelled,  but  a  number  of  Nobunaga's 
best  officers  were  killed.  After  some  two  months 
of  effort,  three  of  the  five  fortresses  were  in  the 
assailants'  hands,  and  many  thousands  of  the  gar- 
rison had  fallen  or  perished  in  the  flames,  the  odor 
of  decaying  bodies  threatening  to  spread  pestilence 
through  camp  and  castle  alike. 

In  this  perilous  condition  of  affairs  the  mikado 
sent  a  number  of  his  high  officials  to  persuade  the 
garrison  to  yield.  A  conference  was  held  and  a  sur- 
render agreed  upon.  The  survivors  were  permitted 
to  make  their  way  to  other  monasteries  of  their 
sect,  and  Nobunaga  occupied  the  castle,  which  is  still 
held  by  the  government.  These  two  great  blows 
brought  the  power  of  the  bonzes,  for  that  age,  to  an 
end.  In  later  years  some  trouble  was  made  by  them, 
but  Nobunaga  had  done  his  work  so  thoroughly 
that  there  was  little  difficulty  in  keeping  them  under 
control. 

There  remains  only  to  tell  the  story  of  this  great 


NOBUNAGA  AND  THE  FALL  OP  THE  BUDDHISTS.   79 

captain's  end.  He  died  at  Kioto,  the  victim  of  trea- 
son. Among  his  captains  was  one  named  Akechi,  a 
brave  man,  but  proud.  One  day,  in  a  moment  of 
merriment,  Nobunaga  put  the  head  of  the  captain 
under  his  arm  and  played  on  it  with  his  fan,  saying 
that  he  would  make  a  drum  of  it.  This  pleasantry 
was  not  to  the  taste  of  the  haughty  captain,  who 
nursed  a  desire  for  revenge, — behind  which  perhaps 
lay  a  wish  to  seize  the  power  of  the  chief. 

The  traitor  did  not  have  long  to  wait.  Nobunaga 
had  sent  most  of  his  forces  away  to  quell  a  rebellion, 
keeping  but  a  small  garrison.  With  part  of  this 
Akechi  was  ordered  to  Kiushiu,  and  left  the  city 
with  seeming  intention  to  obey.  But  he  had  not 
gone  far  when  he  called  his  officers  together,  told 
them  of  his  purpose  to  kill  Nobunaga,  and  promised 
them  rich  booty  for  their  assistance  in  the  plot.  The 
officers  may  have  had  reasons  of  their  own  for  mu- 
tiny, for  they  readily  consented,  and  marched  back 
to  the  city  they  had  just  left. 

Nobunaga  resided  in  the  temple  of  Hounqji,  ap- 
parently without  a  guard,  and  to  his  surprise  heard 
the  tread  of  many  feet  and  the  clash  of  armor  with- 
out. Opening  a  window  to  learn  what  this  por- 
tended, he  was  struck  by  an  arrow  fired  from  the 
outer  darkness.  He  saw  at  once  what  had  occurred, 
and  that  escape  was  impossible.  There  was  but  one 
way  for  a  hero  to  die.  Setting  fire  to  the  temple,  he 
killed  himself,  and  before  many  minutes  the  body  of 
the  great  warrior  was  a  charred  corpse  in  the  ashes 
of  his  funeral  pile. 


HOW  A  PEASANT  BOY  BECAME 
PREMIER. 

IN  the  history  of  nations  there  have  been  many 
instances  of  a  man  descended  from  the  lowest  class 
of  the  populace  reaching  the  highest  rank.  Kings, 
conquerors,  emperors,  have  thus  risen  from  the  ranks 
of  peasants  and  laborers,  and  the  crown  has  been 
worn  by  men  born  to  the  beggar's  lot.  In  the  his- 
tory of  Japan  only  one  instance  of  this  kind  appears, 
that  of  one  born  a  peasant  who  supplanted  the  noble 
families  and  became  lord  of  the  people  and  the 
emperor  alike.  Such  a  man  was  Hideyoshi,  the  one 
of  Nobunaga's  generals  who  bore  the  popular  nick- 
name of  "  Cotton,"  from  his  fertility  of  resources 
and  his  varied  utility  to  his  chief. 

Born  in  1536,  the  son  of  a  peasant  named  Yasuke, 
as  a  baby  he  had  almost  the  face  of  a  monkey,  while 
as  a  boy  he  displayed  a  monkey-like  cunning,  rest- 
lessness, and  activity.  The  usual  occupations  of  the 
sons  of  Japanese  peasants,  such  as  grass-cutting  and 
rice- weeding,  were  not  to  the  taste  of  young  Mon- 
key-pine, as  the  villagers  called  him,  and  he  spent 
his  time  in  the  streets,  a  keen-witted  and  reckless 
young  truant,  who  feared  and  cared  for  no  one,  and 
lived  by  his  wits. 

Fortune  favored  the  little  vagrant  by  bringing 
him  under  the  eyes  of  the  great  soldier  Kobunaga, 
80 


HOW   A   PEASANT   BOY   BECAME   PREMIER.  81 

who  was  attracted  by  his  wizened,  monkeyish  face 
and  restless  eyes  and  gave  him  occupation  among 
his  grooms.  As  he  grew  older  his  love  of  war  be- 
came pronounced,  he  took  part  in  the  numerous 
civil  turmoils  in  which  his  patron  was  engaged,  and 
manifested  such  courage  and  daring  that  Nobunaga 
rapidly  advanced  him  in  rank,  finally  making  him 
one  of  his  most  trusted  generals.  No  man  was  more 
admired  in  the  army  for  soldierly  qualities  than  the 
peasant  leader,  and  the  boldest  warriors  sought 
service  under  his  banner,  which  at  first  bore  for 
emblem  a  single  gourd,  but  gained  a  new  one  after 
each  battle,  until  it  displayed  a  thick  cluster  of 
gourds.  At  the  head  of  the  army  a  golden  model 
of  the  original  banner  was  borne,  and  wherever  it 
moved  victory  followed. 

Such  was  the  man  who,  after  the  murder  of  Nobu- 
naga,  marched  in  furious  haste  upon  his  assassin 
and  quenched  the  ambition  of  the  latter  in  death. 
The  brief  career  of  the  murderer  has  given  rise  to  a 
Japanese  proverb,  "  Akechi  ruled  three  days."  The 
avenger  of  the  slain  regent  was  now  at  the  head  of 
affairs.  The  mikado  himself  dared  not  oppose  him, 
for  the  military  power  of  the  empire  lay  within  his 
grasp.  There  was  only  one  man  who  ventured  to 
resist  his  authority,  and  he  for  no  long  time. 

This  was  a  general  named  Shibata,  who  took  the 
field  in  defence  of  the  claim  of  Nobutaka,  a  son  of 
the  slain  regent.  He  did  not  realize  with  whom  he 
had  to  deal.  The  peasant  general  was  quickly  in 
the  field  at  the  head  of  his  veteran  army,  defeated 
Shibata  at  every  encounter,  and  pursued  him  so  hotly 


82  HISTORICAL  -TALES. 

that  he  fled  for  refuge  to  a  fortified  place  now  known 
as  Fukui.  This  stronghold  Hideyoshi  besieged,  es- 
tablishing his  camp  on  the  slope  of  a  neighboring 
mountain,  from  which  he  pushed  his  siege  operations 
so  vigorously  that  the  fugitive  gave  up  all  hope  of 
escape. 

In  this  dilemma  Shibata  took  a  resolution  like 
that  of  the  Epicurean  monarch  of  Assyria,  the  famed 
Sardanapalus.  He  gave  a  grand  feast  in  the  palace, 
to  which  all  the  captains  and  notables  of  his  party 
were  invited,  and  at  which  all  present  danced  and 
made  merry  as  though  victory  hung  over  their  ban- 
ners. Yet  it  was  their  funeral  feast,  to  be  followed 
by  a  carnival  of  death. 

In  the  midst  of  the  banquet,  Shibata,  rising  cup  in 
hand,  said  to  his  wife, — 

"  We  are  men,  and  will  die.  You  are  a  woman, 
and  have  the  right  to  live.  You  may  gain  safety  by 
leaving  the  castle,  and  are  at  liberty  to  marry  again." 

The  brave  woman,  the  sister  of  Nobunaga,  was 
too  high  in  spirit  to  accept  this  offer.  Her  eyes 
filled  with  tears,  she  thanked  her  lord  for  his  kind- 
ness, but  declared  that  the  world  held  no  other  hus- 
band for  her,  and  that  it  was  her  sole  wish  to  die 
with  him.  Then,  reciting  a  farewell  stanza  of  poetry, 
she  calmly  stood  while  her  husband  thrust  his  dirk 
into  her  heart. 

All  the  women  and  children  present,  nerved  by 
this  brave  example,  welcomed  the  same  fate,  and 
then  the  men  committed  hara-kiri,  the  Japanese 
method  of  suicide,  Sbibata  having  first  set  fire  to  the 
castle.  Soon  the  flames  curled  upward  round  the 


HOW   A   PEASANT   BOY   BECAME   PREMIER.  83 

dead  and  the  dying,  and  the  conqueror  found  nothing 
but  the  ashes  of  a  funeral  pile  upon  which  to  lay 
hand. 

Hideyoshi,  all  resistance  to  his  rule  being  now  at 
an  end,  set  himself  to  tranquillize  and  develop  Japan, 
lyeyasu,  one  of  Nobunaga's  favorite  generals,  became 
his  friend  and  married  his  sister;  Mori,  lord  of  the 
West,  came  to  the  capital  and  became  his  vassal,  and 
no  man  in  the  empire  dared  question  his  power.  His 
enemies,  proud  nobles  who  were  furious  at  having  to 
bend  their  haughty  heads  before  a  peasant,  privately 
called  him  Sava  Kuan  ja  ("  crowned  monkey"),  but 
were  wise  enough  not  to  be  too  open  in  their  satire. 
Their  anger  was  especially  aroused  by  the  fact  that 
the  mikado  had  conferred  upon  this  parvenu  the  lofty 
office  of  kuambaku,  or  prime  minister  of  the  empire, 
a  title  which  had  never  before  been  borne  by  any 
one  not  a  noble  of  the  Fujiwara  clan,  for  whom  it 
had  been  expressly  reserved.  He  was  also  ennobled 
under  the  family  name  of  Toyotomi  Hideyoshi. 

The  new  premier  showed  as  great  an  activity  in 
the  works  of  peace  as  he  had  shown  in  those  of  war, 
putting  his  soldiers  to  work  to  keep  their  minds  em- 
ployed. Kioto  was  improved  by  his  orders,  splendid 
palaces  being  built,  and  the  bed  of  the  river  Kamo 
paved  with  flat  stones.  Ozaka  was  greatly  developed, 
an  immense  fortress  being  built,  the  river  widened 
and  deepened,  and  canals  dug  in  great  profusion, 
over  which  were  thrown  more  than  a  thousand 
bridges.  Various  other  cities  were  improved,  great 
towers  and  pagodas  built,  and  public  works  erected 
in  many  parts  of  the  realm.  In  addition  Hideyoshi 


84  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

won  popularity  by  his  justice  and  mercy,  pardoning 
his  opponents,  though  the  rule  had  hitherto  been  to 
put  the  adherents  of  opposite  parties  to  death,  and 
showing  no  regard  for  rank,  title,  or  service  to  him- 
self in  his  official  duty  as  judge. 

He  had  married  a  peasant  girl  while  a  peasant  him- 
self, but  as  he  rose  in  rank  he  espoused  new  wives  of 
increasingly  high  station,  his  last  being  of  princely 
descent.  In  the  end  he  had  as  many  wives  as  the 
much-married  Henry  VIII.,  but  not  in  the  same 
fashion,  as  he  kept  them  all  at  once,  instead  of  cutting 
off  the  head  of  one  to  make  room  for  the  next. 

Hideyoshi  had  one  great  ambition,  born  in  him 
when  a  boy,  and  haunting  him  as  a  man.  This  was 
to  conquer  Corea,  and  perhaps  China  as  well.  He 
had  begged  Nobunaga  to  aid  him  in  this  great  de- 
sign, but  had  only  been  laughed  at  for  his  pains. 
Now  that  he  was  at  the  head  of  affairs,  this  plan 
loomed  up  in  large  proportions  in  his  mind.  Corea 
had  long  ceased  to  pay  tribute,  and  Corean  pirates 
ravaged  the  coast.  Here  was  an  excuse  for  action. 
As  for  China,  he  knew  that  anarchy  ruled  there,  and 
hoped  to  take  advantage  of  this  state  of  affairs. 

Patting  the  back  of  a  statue  of  Yoritomo  in  a 
patronizing  fashion,  he  humorously  said,  "You  are 
my  friend.  You  took  all  the  power  in  Japan,  a 
thing  which  only  you  and  I  have  been  able  to  do. 
But  you  came  from  a  noble  family,  and  were  not, 
like  me,  the  son  of  a  peasant.  I  propose  to  outdo 
you,  and  conquer  all  the  earth,  and  even  China. 
What  say  you  to  that  ?" 

To  test  the  feeling  of  the  gods  about  his  proposed 


HOW   A   PEASANT   BOY   BECAME   PREMIER.  85 

expedition,  he  threw  into  the  air  before  a  shrine  a 
hundred  "  cash,"  or  Japanese  small  coin,  saying,  to 
translate  his  words  into  the  American  vernacular, 
"  If  I  am  to  conquer  China,  let  these  come  up  head." 

They  all  came  up  "  head,"  or  what  in  Japan  an- 
swers to  that  word,  and  soldiers  and  ruler  were  alike 
delighted,  for  this  omen  seemed  surely  to  promise 
success. 

Nearly  fourteen  hundred  years  had  elapsed  since 
the  previous  conquest  of  Corea  by  the  famous  empress 
Jingu.  Now  an  army  said  to  have  been  five  hundred 
thousand  strong  was  sent  across  the  ocean  channel 
between  Kiushiu  and  the  Corean  coast.  Hideyoshi 
was  at  this  time  sixty  years  of  age  and  had  grown 
infirm  of  body,  so  that  he  felt  unable  to  command 
the  expedition  himself,  which  was  therefore  intrusted 
to  two  of  his  ablest  leaders,  Kato,  of  noble  birth, 
and  Konishi,  the  son  of  a  druggist,  who  disgusted 
his  proud  associate  by  representing  on  his  banner  a 
paper  medicine-bag,  the  sign  of  his  father's  shop. 

Notwithstanding  the  ill  feeling  between  the  lead- 
ers, the  armies  were  everywhere  victorious,  Corea 
was  overrun  and  the  king  driven  from  his  capital, 
and  the  victors  had  entered  into  serious  conflict  with 
the  armies  of  China,  when  word  came  from  Japan 
(in  1598)  that  Hideyoshi  was  dead.  A  truce  was  at 
once  concluded  and  the  army  ordered  home. 

Thus  ended  the  second  invasion  of  Corea,  the 
second  of  the  events  which  gave  rise  to  the  claim  in 
Japan  that  Corea  is  a  vassal  state  of  the  island  em- 
pire and  were  used  as  warrants  to  the  nineteenth 
century  invasion. 


THE  FOUNDER    OF  YE  DO  AND 
OF  MODERN  FEUDALISM. 

THE  death  of  the  peasant  premier  left  lyeyasu, 
the  second  in  ability  of  Nobunaga's  great  generals, 
as  the  rising  power  in  Japan.  Hideyoshi,  in  the 
hope  of  preserving  the  rule  in  his  own  family,  had 
married  his  son,  a  child  of  six,  to  lyeyasu's  grand- 
daughter, and  appointed  six  ministers  to  act  as  his 
guardians.  He  did  not  count,  in  cherishing  this 
illusory  hope,  on  the  strength  of  human  ambition. 
Nor  did  he  give  thought  to  the  bitter  disgust  with 
which  the  haughty  lords  and  nobles  had  yielded  to 
the  authority  of  one  whom  they  regarded  as  an  up- 
start. The  chances  of  the  child's  coming  to  power 
were  immeasurably  small. 

In  truth,  the  death  of  the  strong-willed  premier 
had  thrown  Japan  open  to  anarchy.  The  leaders 
who  had  returned  from  the  Corean  war,  flushed  with 
victory,  were  ambitious  for  power,  and  the  thou- 
sands of  soldiers  under  their  command  were  eager 
for  war  and  spoils.  Hidenobu,  a  nephew  of  Nobu- 
naga,  claimed  the  succession  to  his  uncle's  position. 
The  five  military  governors  who  had  been  appointed 
by  the  late  premier  were  suspicious  of  lyeyasu,  and 
took  steps  to  prevent  him  from  seizing  the  vacated 
place.  The  elements  of  anarchy  indeed  were  every- 
86 


FOUNDER  OP  YEDO  AND  OF  MODERN  FEUDALISM.   87 

where  abroad,  there  was  more  than  one  aspirant  to 
the  ruling  power,  and  armies  began  to  be  raised. 

lyeyasu  keenly  watched  the  movements  of  his 
enemies.  When  he  saw  that  troops  were  being  re- 
cruited, he  did  the  same.  Crimination  and  recrimi- 
nation went  on,  skirmishes  took  place  in  the  field, 
the  citadel  of  Ozaka  was  successively  taken  and  re- 
taken by  the  opposing  parties,  the  splendid  palace  of 
Hideyoshi  at  Fushimi  was  given  to  the  flames,  and 
at  length  the  two  armies  came  together  to  settle  in 
one  great  battle  the  fate  of  Japan. 

The  army  of  the  league  against  lyeyasu  had  many 
leaders,  including  the  five  governors,  most  of  the  gen- 
erals of  the  Corean  war,  and  the  lords  and  vassals  of 
Hideyoshi.  Strong  as  it  was,  one  hundred  and  eighty 
thousand  in  all,  it  was  moved  by  contrary  purposes, 
and  unity  of  counsel  was  lacking  among  the  chiefs. 
The  army  of  lyeyasu,  while  far  weaker,  had  but  one 
leader,  and  was  inspired  by  a  single  purpose. 

On  the  1st  of  October,  1600,  the  march  began, 
over  the  great  highway  known  as  the  Tokaido. 
The  white  banner  of  lyeyasu  was  embroidered  with 
hollyhocks,  his  standard  a  golden  fan.  "  The  road 
to  the  west  is  shut,"  prophesied  the  diviners.  "  Then 
I  shall  knock  till  it  opens,"  the  bold  leader  replied. 

As  they  marched  onward,  a  persimmon  (ogaki  in 
Japanese)  was  offered  him.  He  opened  his  hand  to 
receive  it,  saying,  as  it  fell  into  his  palm,  "  Ogaki  has 
fallen  into  my  hand."  (The  significance  of  this  re- 
mark lies  in  the  fact  that  the  camp  of  the  league  lay 
around  the  castle  of  Ogaki). 

Learning  of  the  near  approach  of  lyeyasu's  force, 


88  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

the  opposing  army  broke  camp  and  marched  to  meet 
him  through  a  sharp  rain  that  wet  them  to  the  skin. 
Their  chosen  field  of  battle,  Sekigahara  ("  plain  of 
the  barrier")  by  name,  is  in  Omi,  near  Lake  Biwa. 
It  is  an  expanse  of  open,  rolling  ground,  bisected  by 
one  of  the  main  roads  between  Tokio  and  Kioto 
and  crossed  by  a  road  from  Echizen.  On  this  spot 
was  to  be  fought  one  of  the  greatest  battles  Japan 
had  ever  known,  whose  result  was  destined  to  settle 
the  fate  of  the  empire  for  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years. 

In  the  early  morning  of  the  eventful  day  one  of 
the  pickets  of  lyeyasu's  host  brought  word  that  the 
army  of  the  league  was  in  full  march  from  the  castle 
of  Ogaki.  This  important  news  was  soon  confirmed 
by  others,  and  the  general  joyfully  cried,  "The  enemy 
has  indeed  fallen  into  my  hand."  Throwing  aside  his 
helmet,  he  knotted  a  handkerchief  over  his  forehead, 
saying  that  this  was  all  the  protection  he  should 
need  in  the  coming  battle. 

His  army  was  seventy-five  thousand  strong.  That 
opposed  to  him  exceeded  his  in  strength  by  more 
than  fifty  thousand  men.  But  neither  as  yet  knew 
what  they  had  to  encounter,  for  a  fog  lay  heavy  on 
the  plain,  and  the  two  armies,  drawn  up  in  battle 
array,  were  invisible  to  each  other.  To  prevent 
surprise,  lyeyasu  sent  in  front  of  his  army  a  body 
of  guards  bearing  white  flags,  to  give  quick  warning 
of  an  advance. 

At  length,  at  eight  o'clock,  the  fog  rose  and  drifted 
away,  revealing  the  embattled  hosts.  Hardly  had 
it  vanished  before  the  drums  beat  their  battle  peal 


FOUNDER  OP  TEDO  AND  OP  MODERN  FEUDALISM.   89 

and  the  martial  conchs  sounded  defiance,  while  a 
shower  of  arrows  from  each  army  hurtled  through 
the  opposing  ranks.  In  a  short  time  the  impatient 
warriors  met  in  mid  field,  and  sword  and  spear  began 
their  deadly  work. 

The  great  weight  of  the  army  of  the  league  at 
first  gave  it  the  advantage,  and  for  hours  the  result 
was  in  doubt,  though  a  corps  of  the  league  forces 
deserted  to  the  ranks  of  lyeyasu.  At  length  unity 
and  discipline  began  to  prevail,  the  intrepidity  of 
lyeyasu  and  his  skill  in  taking  advantage  of  every 
error  of  his  enemy  giving  confidence  to  his  men. 
By  noon  they  were  bearing  back  the  foe.  Ordering 
up  the  reserves,  and  bidding  the  drummers  and 
conch-blowers  to  sound  their  most  inspiriting  appeal, 
lyeyasu  gave  order  for  the  whole  army  to  charge. 

Before  the  impetuous  onset  that  followed,  the 
enemy  wavered,  broke,  and  fled,  followed  in  hot 
pursuit  by  the  victorious  host.  And  now  a  frightful 
scene  began.  Thousands  of  heads  of  the  flying 
were  cut  off  by  the  keen-edged  blades  of  their  pur- 
suers. Most  of  the  wounded  and  many  of  the  un- 
hurt killed  themselves  upon  the  field,  in  obedience  to 
the  exaggerated  Japanese  sense  of  honor.  The  de- 
feat became  a  butchery.  In  Japanese  battles  of  the 
past  quarter  was  a  mercy  rarely  craved  or  granted, 
and  decapitation  the  usual  mode  of  death  when  the 
sword  could  be  brought  into  play,  so  that  the  tri- 
umph of  the  victors  was  usually  indicated  by  the 
dimensions  of  the  ghastly  heap  of  heads.  In  this 
frightful  conflict  the  claim  was  made  by  the  victors 
(doubtless  an  exaggeration)  that  they  had  taken 


90  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

forty  thousand  heads  of  the  foe,  while  their  own  loss 
was  only  four  thousand.  However  that  be,  a  great 
mound  of  heads  was  made,  one  of  many  such  evi- 
dences of  slaughter  which  may  still  be  seen  in 
Japan. 

Throughout  the  battle  a  knotted  handkerchief 
was  the  only  defence  of  lyeyasu's  head.  The  vic- 
tory won,  he  called  for  his  helmet,  which  he  put  on, 
carefully  tying  the  strings.  As  all  looked  on  with 
surprise  at  this  strange  action,  he,  with  a  smile, 
repeated  to  them  an  old  Japanese  proverb,  "After 
victory,  knot  the  cords  of  your  helmet." 

It  was  a  suggestion  of  vigilance  wisely  given  and 
alertly  acted  upon.  The  strongholds  of  the  league 
were  invested  without  delay,  and  one  by  one  fell  into 
the  victors'  hands.  The  fragments  of  the  beaten 
army  were  followed  and  dispersed.  Soon  all  oppo- 
sition was  at  an  end,  and  lyeyasu  was  lord  and 
master  of  Japan. 

The  story  of  the  victor  in  the  most  decisive  vic- 
tory Japan  had  ever  known,  one  that  was  followed 
by  two  and  a  half  centuries  of  peace,  needs  to  com- 
plete it  a  recital  of  two  important  events,  one  being 
the  founding  of  Yedo,  the  great  eastern  capital,  the 
other  the  organization  of  the  system  of  feudalism. 

For  ages  the  country  around  the  Bay  of  Yedo, 
now  the  chief  centre  of  activity  and  civilization  in 
Japan,  was  wild  and  thinly  peopled.  The  first  men- 
tion of  it  in  history  is  in  the  famous  march  of  Ya- 
mato-Dake,  whose  wife  leaped  here  into  the  waves 
as  a  sacrifice  to  the  maritime  gods.  In  the  fifteenth 
century  a  small  castle  was  built  on  the  site  of  the 


FOUNDER  OP  YEDO  AND  OP  MODERN  FEUDALISM.   91 

present  city,  while  near  it  on  the  Tokaida,  the  great 
highway  between  the  two  ancient  capitals,  stood  a 
small  village,  whose  chief  use  was  for  the  refresh- 
ment and  assistance  of  travellers. 

Ota  Dagnan,  the  lord  of  the  castle,  was  a  warrior 
of  fame,  whose  deeds  have  gained  him  a  place  in  the 
song  and  story  of  Japan.  Of  the  tales  told  of  him 
there  is  one  whose  poetic  significance  has  given  it  a 
fixed  place  in  the  legendary  lore  of  the  land.  One 
day,  when  the  commandant  was  amusing  himself  in 
the  sport  of  hawking,  a  shower  of  rain  fell  suddenly 
and  heavily,  forcing  him  to  stop  at  a  house  near  by 
and  request  the  loan  of  a  grass  rain-coat, — a  mino,  to 
give  it  its  Japanese  name. 

A  young  and  very  pretty  girl  came  to  the  door  at 
his  summons,  listened  to  his  polite  request,  and  stood 
for  a  moment  blushing  and  confused.  Then,  running 
into  the  garden,  she  plucked  a  flower,  handed  it  with 
a  mischievous  air  to  the  warrior,  and  disappeared 
within  the  house.  Ota,  angrily  flinging  down  the 
flower,  turned  away,  after  an  impulse  to  force  his 
way  into  the  house  and  help  himself  to  the  coat. 
He  returned  to  the  castle  wet  and  fuming  at  the 
slight  to  his  rank  and  dignity. 

Soon  after  he  related  the  incident  to  some  court 
nobles  from  Kioto,  who  had  stopped  at  the  castle, 
and  who,  to  his  surprise,  did  not  share  his  indigna- 
tion at  the  act. 

"Wby,  the  incident  was  delightful,"  said  one 
among  them  who  was  specially  versed  in  poetic  lore ; 
"  who  would  have  looked  for  such  wit  and  such 
knowledge  of  our  classic  poetry  in  a  young  girl  in 


92  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

this  uncultivated  spot?  The  trouble  is,  friend  Ota, 
that  you  are  not  learned  enough  to  take  the  maiden's 
meaning." 

"  I  take  it  that  she  meant  to  laugh  at  a  soaked 
fowler,"  growled  the  warrior. 

"  Not  so.  It  was  only  a  graceful  way  of  telling 
you  that  she  had  no  mino  to  loan.  She  was  too  shy 
to  say  no  to  your  request,  and  so  handed  you  a 
mountain  camellia.  Centuries  ago  one  of  our  poets 
sang  of  this  flower,  '  Although  it  has  seven  or  eight 
petals,  yet,  I  grieve  to  say,  it  has  no  seed'  (mino). 
The  cunning  little  witch  has  managed  to  gay  '  no' 
to  you  in  the  most  graceful  way  imaginable." 

Here,  where  the  castle  stood,  lyeyasu  started  to 
build  a  city,  at  the  suggestion  of  his  superior  Hide- 
yoshi.  Thus  began  the  great  city  of  Yedo, — now 
Tokio,  the  eastern  capital  of  Japan.  In  1600,  lye- 
yasu, then  at  the  head  of  affairs,  pushed  the  work  on 
his  new  city  with  energy,  employing  no  less  than 
three  hundred  thousand  men.  The  castle  was  en- 
larged, canals  were  excavated,  streets  laid  out  and 
graded,  marshes  filled,  and  numerous  buildings 
erected,  fleets  of  junks  bringing  granite  for  the 
citadel,  while  the  neighboring  forests  furnished  the 
timber  for  the  dwellings. 

An  outer  ditch  was  dug  on  a  grand  scale,  and 
gates  and  towers  were  built  with  no  walls  to  join 
them  and  no  dwellings  within  many  furlongs  of 
their  site.  But  to  those  who  laughed  at  the  mag- 
ni6cent  plan  on  which  the  young  city  had  been  laid 
out,  the  founder  declared  that  the  coming  time  would 
see  his  walls  built  and  the  dwellings  of  the  city 


FOUNDER  OP  YEDO  AND  OP  MODERN  FEUDALISM.   93 

stretching  far  beyond  them.  Before  a  century  his 
words  were  verified,  and  Yedo  had  a  population  of 
half  a  million  souls.  To-day  it  is  the  home  of  more 
than  a  million  people. 

It  is  for  his  political  genius  that  lyeyasu  partic- 
ularly deserves  fame.  Once  more,  in  1615,  he  was 
forced  to  fight  for  his  supremacy,  against  the  son  of 
the  late  premier.  A  bloody  battle  followed,  ending 
in  victory  for  lyeyasu  and  the  burning  of  the  castle 
of  Ozaka,  in  whose  flames  the  aspirant  for  power 
probably  met  his  doom.  No  other  battle  was  fought 
on  the  soil  of  Japan  for  two  hundred  and  fifty-three 
years. 

lyeyasu  had  the  blood  of  the  Minamoto  clan  in 
his  veins.  He  had  therefore  an  hereditary  claim  to 
the  shogunate,  as  successor  to  the  great  Yoritomo, 
the  founder  of  the  family  and  the  first  to  bear  the 
title  of  Great  Shogun.  This  title,  Sei-i  Tai  Shogun, 
was  now  conferred  by  the  mikado  on  the  new  mili- 
tary chief,  and  was  borne  by  his  descendants,  the 
Tokugawa  family,  until  the  great  revolution  of  1868, 
when  the  mikado  again  seized  his  long-lost  authority. 

Before  this  period,  civil  war  had  for  centuries 
desolated  Japan.  After  1615  war  ceased  in  that 
long  distracted  land  and  peace  and  prosperity  pre- 
vailed. What  were  the  steps  taken  by  the  new 
shogun  to  insure  this  happy  result  ?  It  arose 
through  the  establishment  of  a  well  defined  system 
of  feudalism,  and  the  bringing  of  the  feudal  lords 
under  the  immediate  control  of  the  shogun. 

Japan  was  already  organized  on  a  semi-feudal 
system.  The  land  was  divided  between  the  great 


94  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

lords  or  daimios,  who  possessed  strong  castles  and 
large  landed  estates,  with  a  powerful  armed  follow, 
ing,  and  into  whose  treasuries  much  of  the  revenue 
of  the  kingdom  flowed.  These  powerful  princes  of 
the  realm  were  conciliated  by  the  conqueror.  Under 
them  were  daimios  of  smaller  estate,  many  of  whom 
had  joined  him  in  his  career ;  and  lower  still  a  large 
number  of  minor  military  holders,  whose  grants  of 
land  enabled  them  to  bring  small  bodies  of  followers 
into  the  field. 

lyeyasu's  plan  was  one  of  conciliation  and  the  pre- 
vention of  hostile  union.  He  laid  his  plans  and  left 
it  to  time  to  do  his  work.  Some  of  the  richest  fiefs 
of  the  empire  were  conferred  upon  his  sons,  who 
founded  several  of  its  most  powerful  families.  The 
possessions  of  the  other  lords  were  redistributed,  the 
land  being  divided  up  among  them  in  a  way  to  pre- 
vent rebellious  concentration,  vassals  and  adherents 
of  his  own  being  placed  between  any  two  neighbor- 
ing lords  whose  loyalty  was  in  doubt.  To  prevent 
ambitious  lords  from  seizing  Kioto  and  making 
prisoner  the  mikado,  as  had  frequently  been  done  in 
the  past,  he  surrounded  it  on  all  sides  with  strong 
domains  ruled  by  his  sons  or  friends.  When  his 
work  of  redistribution  was  finished,  his  friends  and 
vassals  everj-where  lay  between  the  realms  of  doubt- 
ful daimios.  A  hostile  movement  in  force  had  been 
rendered  nearly  impossible. 

Below  the  daimios  came  the  hatamoto,  or  sup- 
porters of  the  flag,  direct  vassals  of  the  shogun,  of 
whom  there  were  eighty  thousand  in  Japan,  mostly 
descendants  of  proved  warriors  and  with  a  train  of 


FOUNDER  OP  YEDO  AND  OF  MODERN  FEUDALISM.   95 

from  three  to  thirty  retainers  each.  These  were 
scattered  throughout  the  empire,  but  the  majority 
of  them  lived  in  Yedo.  They  formed  the  direct 
military  dependence  of  the  shogun,  and  held  most 
of  the  military  and  civil  positions.  Under  them 
again  were  the  gokenin,  the  humbler  members  of  the 
Togukawa  clan,  and  hereditary  followers  of  the 
shogun.  All  these  formed  the  samurai,  the  men 
privileged  to  wear  two  swords  and  exempted  from 
taxes.  Their  number  and  readiness  gave  the  shogun 
complete  military  control  of  the  empire,  and  made 
him  master  of  all  it  held,  from  mikado  to  peasant. 

Such  was  the  method  adopted  by  the  great  states- 
man to  insure  peace  to  the  empire  and  to  keep  the 
power  within  the  grasp  of  his  own  family.  In  both 
respects  it  proved  successful.  A  second  important 
step  was  taken  by  lyemitsu,  his  grandson,  and  after 
him  the  ablest  of  the  family.  By  this  time  many  of 
the  noted  warriors  among  the  daimios  were  dead, 
and  their  sons,  enervated  by  peace  and  luxury,  could 
be  dealt  with  more  vigorously  than  would  have  been 
safe  to  do  with  their  fathers. 

lyemitsu  suggested  that  all  the  daimios  should 
make  Yedo  their  place  of  residence  for  half  the  year. 
At  first  they  were  treated  as  guests,  the  shogun 
meeting  them  in  the  suburbs  and  dealing  with  them 
with  great  consideration.  But  as  the  years  went  on 
the  daimios  became  more  and  more  like  prisoners  on 
parole.  They  were  obliged  to  pay  tribute  of  respect 
to  the  shogun  in  a  manner  equivalent  to  doing 
homage.  Though  they  could  return  at  intervals  to 
their  estates,  their  wives  and  children  were  kept  in 


96  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

Yedo  as  hostages  for  their  good  behavior.  When 
lyemitsu  died,  the  shoguns  had  cemented  their  power 
beyond  dispute.  The  mikados,  nominal  emperors, 
were  at  their  beck  and  call ;  the  daimios  were  virtual 
prisoners  of  state ;  the  whole  military  power  and 
revenues  of  the  empire  were  under  their  control ; 
conspiracy  and  attempted  rebellion  could  be  crushed 
by  a  wave  of  their  hands ;  peace  ruled  in  Japan. 

lyemitsu  was  the  first  to  whom  the  title  of  Tai 
Kun  (Tycoon),  or  Great  King,  was  ever  applied.  It 
was  in  a  letter  written  to  Corea.  intended  to  influ- 
ence foreigners.  It  was  employed  in  a  larger  sense 
for  the  same  purpose  at  a  later  date,  as  we  shall 
hereafter  see.  Suffice  it  here  to  say  that  the  Toku- 
gawas  remained  the  rulers  of  Japan  until  1868,  when 
a  new  move  in  the  game  of  empire  was  made. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIAN. 
ITY  IN  JAPAN. 

THE  fact  that  such  a  realm  as  that  of  Japan  existed 
remained  unknown  in  Europe  until  about  six  cen- 
turies ago,  when  Marco  Polo,  in  his  famous  record 
of  travel  and  adventure,  first  spoke  of  it.  He  knew 
of  it,  however,  only  by  Chinese  hearsay,  and  the 
story  he  told  contained  far  more  of  fable  than  of 
fact.  The  Chinese  at  that  time  seem  to  have  had 
little  knowledge  of  their  nearest  civilized  neigh- 
bor. 

"  Zipangu" — the  name  he  gives  it — is,  he  says,  "  an 
island  in  the  Eastern  Ocean,  about  fifteen  hundred 
miles  [Chinese  miles]  from  the  mainland.  Its  people 
are  well  made,  of  fair  complexion,  and  civilized  in 
manner,  but  idolaters  in  religion."  He  continues, 
"  They  have  gold  in  the  greatest  abundance,  its 
sources  being  inexhaustible.  To  this  circumstance 
we  are  to  attribute  the  extraordinary  richness  of  the 
sovereign's  palace  according  to  what  we  are  told  by 
those  who  have  access  to  the  place.  The  entire  roof 
is  covered  with  a  plating  of  gold,  in  the  same  man- 
ner as  we  cover  houses,  or  more  properly  churches, 
with  lead.  The  ceilings  of  the  halls  are  of  the  same 
precious  metal ;  many  of  the  apartments  have  small 
tables  of  pure  gold,  of  considerable  thickness ;  and 
the  windows  have  also  golden  ornaments.  So  vast, 

7  97 


98  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

indeed,  are  the  riches  of  the  palace  that  it  is  impos- 
sible to  convey  an  idea  of  them.  In  this  island  there 
are  pearls  also,  in  large  quantities,  of  a  pink  color, 
round  in  shape  and  of  great  size,  equal  in  value  to, 
or  even  exceeding,  that  of  the  white  pearls.  There 
are  also  found  there  a  number  of  precious  stones." 

This  story  is  as  remote  from  truth  as  some  of 
those  told  by  Sindbad  the  Sailor.  Polo,  no  doubt, 
thought  he  was  telling  the  truth,  and  knew  that  this 
cascade  of  gold  and  pearls  would  be  to  the  taste  of 
his  readers,  but  anything  more  unlike  the  plainness 
and  simplicity  of  the  actual  palace  of  the  mikado  it 
would  be  hard  to  find. 

For  the  next  European  knowledge  of  Japan  we 
must  step  forward  to  the  year  1542.  Columbus 
had  discovered  America,  and  Portugal  had  found  an 
ocean  highway  to  the  spice  islands  of  the  East.  A 
Portuguese  adventurer,  Mendez  Pinto  by  name,  ven- 
tured as  far  as  China,  then  almost  unknown,  and, 
with  two  companions,  found  himself  on  board  a 
Chinese  junk,  half  trader,  half  pirate. 

In  a  sea-fight  with  another  corsair  their  pilot  was 
killed,  and  soon  after  a  fierce  storm  blew  them  far 
off  shore.  Seeking  to  make  the  Loochoo  Islands, 
they  lost  them  through  lack  of  a  pilot,  and  were 
tossed  about  at  the  ocean's  will  for  twenty-three 
days,  when  they  made  harbor  on  Tane,  a  small  island 
of  Japan  lying  south  of  Kiushiu.  Pinto,  after  his 
return  to  Europe,  told  so  many  marvellous  stories 
about  Japan  that  people  doubted  him  as  much  as 
they  had  doubted  Marco  Polo.  His  very  name,  Men- 
dez,  was  extended  into  "  mendacious."  Yet  time  has 


THE   PROGRESS   OP  CHRISTIANITY   IN   JAPAN.        99 

done  justice  to  both  these  old  travellers,  who  either 
told,  or  tried  to  tell,  the  truth. 

The  Portuguese  travellers  were  well  received  by 
the  islanders, — who  knew  not  yet  what  firebrands 
they  were  welcoming.  It  took  a  century  for  Euro- 
peans to  disgust  the  Japanese  so  thoroughly  as  to 
force  the  islanders  to  drive  them,  from  the  land  and 
put  up  the  bars  against  their  return.  What  in- 
terested the  Japanese  even  more  than  their  visitors 
were  the  new  and  strange  weapons  they  bore.  Pinto 
and  his  two  comrades  were  armed  with  arquebuses, 
warlike  implements  such  as  they  had  never  before 
seen,  and  whose  powers  filled  them  with  astonishment 
and  delight.  It  was  the  era  of  civil  war  in  Japan, 
and  the  possession  of  a  new  and  deadly  weapon  was 
eagerly  welcomed  by  that  martial  people,  who  saw 
in  it  visions  of  speedy  success  over  their  enemies. 

Pinto  was  invited  to  the  castle  of  the  daimio  of 
Bungo,  whom  he  taught  the  arts  of  making  guns 
and  gunpowder.  The  Japanese,  alert  at  taking  ad- 
vantage of  the  discoveries  of  other  people,  were 
quick  to  manufacture  powder  and  guns  for  them- 
selves, and  in  the  wars  told  of  in  our  last  few  tales 
native  cannon  were  brought  into  use,  though  the 
razor-edged  sword  continued  the  most  death-dealing 
of  their  weapons. 

As  for  the  piratical  trader  which  conveyed  Pinto 
to  Japan,  it  sold  its  cargo  at  an  immense  profit,  while 
the  three  Portuguese  reached  China  again  rich  in 
presents.  This  was  not  Pinto's  only  visit  to  Japan. 
He  made  three  other  voyages  thither,  the  last  in 
1556,  as  ambassador  from  the  Portuguese  viceroy 


100  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

in  the  East.  On  this  occasion  he  learned  that  the 
islanders  had  made  rapid  progress  in  their  new 
art  of  gun-making,  they  claiming  to  have  thirty 
thousand  guns  in  Fucheo,  the  capital  of  Bungo,  and 
ten  times  that  number  in  the  whole  land  of  Japan. 

The  new  market  for  European  wares,  opened  by 
the  visit  of  Pinto,  was  quickly  taken  advantage  of 
by  his  countrymen,  and  Portuguese  traders  made 
their  way  by  hundreds  to  Japan,  where  they  met 
with  the  best  of  treatment.  Guns  and  powder  were 
especially  welcome,  as  at  that  time  the  power  of  the 
Ashikaga  clan  was  at  an  end,  anarchy  everywhere 
prevailed,  and  every  local  chief  was  in  arms  to  win 
all  he  could  from  the  ruins  of  the  state.  Such  was 
the  first  visit  of  Europeans  to  Japan,  and  such  the 
gift  they  brought,  the  fatal  one  of  gunpowder. 

The  next  gift  of  Europe  to  Japan  was  that  of  the 
Christian  faith.  On  Pinto's  return  to  Malacca  he 
met  there  the  celebrated  Francis  Xavier,  the  father 
superior  of  the  order  of  the  Jesuits  in  India,  where 
he  had  gained  the  highest  reputation  for  sanctity  and 
the  power  of  working  miracles.  With  the  traveller 
was  a  Japanese  named  Anjiro,  whom  he  had  rescued 
from  enemies  that  sought  his  death,  and  convert-ed 
to  Christianity.  Xavier  asked  him  whether  the  Jap- 
anese would  be  likely  to  accept  the  religion  of  the 
Christians. 

"  My  people  will  not  be  ready  to  accept  at  once 
what  may  be  told  them,"  said  Anjiro,  "  but  will  ask 
you  a  multitude  of  questions,  and,  above  all,  will  see 
whether  your  conduct  agrees  with  your  words.  If 
they  are  satisfied,  the  king,  the  nobles,  and  the  people 


THE   PROGRESS   OF   CHRISTIANITY   IN   JAPAN.      101 

will  flock  to  Christ,  since  they  constitute  a  nation 
that  always  accepts  reason  as  a  guide." 

Thus  encouraged,  Xavier,  whose  enthusiasm  in 
spreading  the  gospel  was  deterred  by  no  obstacle,  set 
sail  in  1549  for  Japan,  accompanied  by  two  priests 
and  Anjiro,  the  latter  with  a  companion  who  had  es- 
caped with  him  in  his  flight  from  Japan. 

The  missionary  party  landed  at  Kagoshima,  in 
Satsuma.  Here  they  had  little  success,  only  the 
family  and  relatives  of  Anjiro  accepting  the  new 
faith,  and  Xavier  set  out  on  a  tour  through  the  land, 
his  goal  being  Kioto,  the  mikado's  capital.  Landing 
at  Amanguchi,  he  presented  himself  before  the  people 
barefooted  and  meanly  dressed,  the  result  of  his  con- 
fessed poverty  being  that,  instead  of  listening  to  his 
words,  the  populace  hooted  and  stoned  him  and  his 
followers.  At  Kioto  he  was  little  better  received. 

Finding  that  a  display  of  poverty  was  not  the  way 
to  impress  the  Japanese,  the  missionary  returned  to 
the  city  of  Kioto  richly  clothed  and  bearing  presents 
and  letters  from  the  Portuguese  viceroy  to  the  em- 
peror. He  was  now  well  received  and  given  per- 
mission to  preach,  and  in  less  than  a  year  had  won 
over  three  thousand  converts  to  the  Christian  faith. 

Naturally,  on  reaching  Kioto,  he  had  looked  for 
the  splendor  spoken  of  by  Marco  Polo,  the  roof 
and  ceilings  of  gold  and  the  golden  tables  of  the 
emperor's  palace.  He  was  sadly  disenchanted  on 
entering  a  city  so  desolated  by  fire  and  war  that  it 
was  little  more  than  a  camp,  and  on  beholding  the 
plainest  and  least  showy  of  all  the  palaces  of  the 
earth. 


102  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

Keturning  to  the  port  of  Fucheo  for  the  purpose 
of  embarking  for  India,  whence  he  designed  to  bring 
new  laborers  to  the  virgin  field,  Xavier  preached 
with  such  success  as  to  alarm  the  Buddhist  bonzes, 
who  made  futile  efforts  to  excite  the  populace  against 
him  as  a  vagabond  and  an  enchanter.  From  there 
he  set  out  for  China,  but  died  on  the  way  thither. 
He  had,  however,  planted  the  seed  of  what  was 
destined  to  yield  a  great  and  noble  harvest. 

In  fact,  the  progress  of  Christianity  in  Japan  was 
of  the  most  encouraging  kind.  Other  missionaries 
quickly  followed  the  great  Jesuit  pioneer,  and 
preached  the  gospel  with  surprising  success.  In 
less  than  five  years  after  the  visit  of  Xavier  to 
Kioto  that  city  possessed  seven  Christian  churches, 
while  there  were  many  others  in  the  southwest 
section  of  the  empire.  In  1581,  thirty  years  after 
Xavier's  death,  there  were  in  Japan  two  hundred 
churches,  while  the  number  of  converts  is  given  at 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  Several  of  the 
daimios  were  converted  to  the  new  faith,  and  No- 
bunaga,  who  hated  and  strove  to  exterminate  the 
Buddhists,  received  the  Christians  with  the  greatest 
favor,  gave  them  desirable  sites  for  their  churches, 
and  sought  to  set  them  up  as  a  foil  to  the  arrogance 
of  the  bonzes. 

The  Christian  daimios  went  so  far  as  to  send  a 
delegation  to  the  pope  at  Rome,  which  returned  eight 
years  afterwards  with  seventeen  Jesuit  missionaries, 
while  a  multitude  of  mendicant  friars  from  the 
Philippine  Islands  and  elsewhere  sought  the  new 
field  of  labor,  preaching  with  the  greatest  zeal  and 


THE   PROGRESS   OF   CHRISTIANITY   IN   JAPAN.      103 

success.  It  is  claimed  that  at  the  culminating  point 
of  proselytism  in  Japan  the  native  Christians  num- 
bered no  less  than  six  hundred  thousand,  among 
them  being  several  princes,  and  many  lords,  high 
officials,  generals,  and  other  military  and  naval  offi- 
cers, with  numerous  women  of  noble  blood.  In 
some  provinces  the  Christian  shrines  and  crosses 
were  as  numerous  as  the  Buddhist  shrines  had  been 
before,  while  there  were  thousands  of  churches, 
chapels,  and  ecclesiastical  edifices. 

This  remarkable  success,  unprecedented  in  the  his- 
tory of  Christian  missionary  work,  was  due  in  great 
measure  to  certain  conditions  then  existing  in  Japan. 
When  Xavier  and  his  successors  reached  Japan,  it 
was  to  find  the  people  of  that  country  in  a  state  of 
the  greatest  misery,  the  result  of  a  long  era  of  an- 
archy and  misrule.  Of  the  native  religions,  Shintoism 
had  in  great  measure  vanished,  while  Buddhism, 
though  affecting  the  imaginations  of  the  people  by 
the  gorgeousness  of  its  service,  had  little  with  which 
to  reach  their  hearts. 

Christianity  came  with  a  ceremonial  more  splendid 
than  that  of  Buddhism,  and  an  eloquence  that  capti- 
vated the  imaginations  of  the  Japanese.  Instead  of 
the  long  series  of  miseries  of  Buddhist  transmigration, 
it  offered  admission  to  the  glories  of  heaven  after 
death,  a  doctrine  sure  to  be  highly  attractive  to 
those  who  had  little  to  hope  for  but  misery  during 
life.  The  story  of  the  life  and  death  of  Christ 
strongly  impressed  the  minds  of  the  people,  as  com- 
pared with  the  colder  story  of  Buddha's  career, 
while  a  certain  similarity  between  the  modes  of 


104  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

worship  of  the  two  religions  proved  of  the  greatest 
assistance  to  the  advocates  of  the  new  creed.  The 
native  temples  were  made  to  serve  as  Christian 
churches;  the  images  of  Buddha  and  his  saints 
were  converted  into  those  of  Christ  and  the  apos- 
tles ;  and,  aside  from  the  more  attractive  doctrines 
of  Christianity,  there  were  points  of  resemblance 
between  the  organization  and  ceremonial  of  the  two 
religions  that  aided  the  missionaries  in  inducing  the 
people  to  change  from  their  old  to  the  new  faith. 

One  of  the  methods  pursued  in  the  propagation  of 
Christianity  had  never  been  adopted  by  the  Buddh- 
ists, that  of  persecution  of  alien  faiths.  The  spirit 
of  the  Inquisition,  then  active  in  Europe,  was  brought 
to  Japan.  The  missionaries  instigated  their  con- 
verts to  destroy  the  idols  and  desert  the  old  shrines. 
Gold  was  used  freely  as  an  agent  in  conversion,  and 
the  Christian  daimios  compelled  their  subjects  to  fol- 
low them  in  accepting  the  new  faith.  In  whole  dis- 
tricts the  people  were  ordered  to  accept  Christian- 
ity or  to  exile  themselves  from  their  homes.  Exile 
or  death  was  the  fate  of  many  of  the  bonzes,  and 
fire  and  the  sword  lent  effect  to  preaching  in  the 
propagation  of  the  doctrine  of  Christianity. 

To  quote  a  single  instance,  from  Charlevoix's 
"History  of  the  Christianizing  of  Japan,"  "In 
1577  the  lord  of  the  island  of  Amacusa  issued  his 
proclamation,  by  which  his  subjects — whether  bon- 
zes or  gentlemen,  merchants  or  traders — were  re- 
quired either  to  turn  Christians,  or  to  leave  the 
country  the  very  next  day.  They  almost  all  sub- 
mitted, and  received  baptism,  so  that  in  a  short  time 


THE   PROGRESS   OP    CHRISTIANITY    IN    JAPAN.      105 

there  were  more  than  twenty  churches  in  the  king- 
dom. God  wrought  miracles  to  confirm  the  faithful 
in  their  belief." 

Miracles  of  the  kind  here  indicated  and  others 
that  might  be  quoted  were  not  of  the  character  of 
those  performed  by  Christ,  and  such  methods  of 
making  proselytes  were  very  likely  to  recoil  upon 
those  that  indulged  in  them.  How  the  result  of  the 
introduction  of  European  methods  manifested  itself 
in  Japan  will  be  indicated  in  our  next  tale. 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF 
CHRISTIANITY  IN  JAPAN. 

WE  have  described  in  the  preceding  tale  the  rise  of 
Christianity  in  Japan,  and  the  remarkable  rapidity 
of  its  development  in  that  remote  land.  We  have 
now  to  describe  its  equally  rapid  decline  and  fall, 
and  the  exclusion  of  Europeans  from  Japanese  soil. 
It  must  be  said  here  that  this  was  in  no  sense  due 
to  the  precepts  of  Christianity,  but  wholly  to  the 
hostility  between  its  advocates  of  different  sects, 
their  jealousy  and  abuse  of  one  another,  and  to  the 
quarrels  between  nations  in  the  contest  to  gain  a 
lion' s  share  of  the  trade  with  Japan. 

At  the  time  when  the  Portuguese  came  to  Japan 
all  Europe  was  torn  with  wars,  civil,  political,  and 
religious.  These  quarrels  were  transferred  to  the 
soil  of  Japan,  and  in  the  end  so  disgusted  the  people 
of  that  empire  that  Europeans  were  forbidden  to  set 
foot  on  its  shores  and  the  native  Christians  were 
massacred.  Traders,  pirates,  slave -dealers,  and 
others  made  their  way  thither,  with  such  a  hodge- 
podge of  interests,  and  such  a  medley  of  lies  and 
backbitings,  that  the  Japanese  became  incensed 
against  the  whole  of  them,  and  in  the  end  decided 
that  their  room  was  far  better  than  their  company. 

The  Portuguese  were  followed  to  Japan  by  the 
Spaniards,  and  these  by  the  Dutch,  each  trying  to 
106 


DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  CHRISTIANITY  IN  JAPAN.  107 

blacken  the  character  of  the  others.  The  Catholics 
abused  the  Protestants,  and  were  as  vigorously  abused 
in  return.  Each  trading  nation  lied  with  the  most 
liberal  freedom  about  its  rivals.  To  the  seaports 
of  Hirado  and  Nagasaki  came  a  horde  of  the  out- 
casts of  Europe,  inveterately  hostile  to  one  another, 
and  indulging  in  quarrels,  riots,  and  murders  to  an 
extent  which  the  native  authorities  found  difficult 
to  control.  In  addition,  the  slave-trade  was  eagerly 
prosecuted,  slaves  being  so  cheap,  in  consequence  of 
the  poverty  and  misery  arising  from  the  civil  wars, 
that  even  the  negro  and  Malay  servants  of  the 
Portuguese  indulged  in  this  profitable  trade,  which 
was  continued  in  spite  of  decrees  threatening  all 
slave-dealers  with  death. 

This  state  of  affairs,  and  the  recriminations  of  the 
religious  sects,  gave  very  natural  disgust  to  the 
authorities  of  Japan,  who  felt  little  respect  for  a 
civilization  that  showed  itself  in  such  uncivilized 
shapes,  and  the  disputing  and  fighting  foreigners 
were  rapidly  digging  their  own  graves  in  Japan. 
During  the  life  of  Xobunaga  all  went  on  well.  In 
his  hatred  to  the  Buddhist  bonzes  he  favored  the 
Jesuits,  and  Christianity  found  a  clear  field.  With 
the  advent  of  Hideyoshi  there  came  a  change.  His 
early  favor  to  the  missionaries  was  followed  by  dis- 
gust, and  in  1587  he  issued  a  decree  banishing  them 
from  the  land.  The  churches  and  chapels  were 
closed,  public  preaching  ceased,  but  privately  the 
work  of  conversion  went  actively  on,  as  many  as 
ten  thousand  converts  being  made  each  year. 

The  Spanish  mendicant  friars  from  the  Philippines 


108  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

were  bolder  in  their  work.  Defying  the  decree,  they 
preached  openly  in  the  dress  of  their  orders,  not 
hesitating  to  denounce  in  violent  language  the  ob- 
noxious law.  As  a  result  the  decree  was  renewed, 
and  a  number  of  the  priests  and  their  converts  were 
crucified.  But  still  the  secret  work  of  the  Jesuits 
continued  and  the  number  of  converts  increased, 
among  them  being  some  of  the  generals  in  the  Corean 
war. 

With'  the  accession  of  lyeyasu  began  a  rapid  down- 
fall of  Christianity  in  Japan.  In  the  great  battle 
which  raised  him  to  the  head  of  affairs  some  of  the 
Christian  leaders  were  killed.  Ivonishi,  a  Christian 
general,  who  had  commanded  one  division  of  the 
army  in  Corea,  was  executed.  On  every  side  there 
was  evidence  of  a  change  in  the  tide  of  affairs,  and 
the  Christians  of  Japan  began  to  despair. 

The  daimios  no  longer  bade  their  followers  to 
become  Christians.  On  the  contrary,  they  ordered 
them  to  renounce  the  new  faith,  under  threat  of 
punishment.  Their  harshness  resulted  in  rebellion, 
so  new  a  thing  among  the  peasantry  of  Japan  that 
the  authorities  felt  sure  that  they  had  been  secretly 
instigated  to  it  by  the  missionaries.  The  wrath  of 
the  shogun  aroused,  he  sent  soldiers  against  the 
rebels,  putting  down  each  outbreak  with  bloodshed, 
and  in  1606  issued  a  decree  abolishing  the  Christian 
faith.  This  the  Spanish  friars  defied,  as  they  had 
that  of  his  predecessor. 

In  1611,  lyeyasu  was  roused  to  more  active  meas- 
ures by  the  discovery  of  a  plot  between  the  foreign- 
ers and  the  native  converts  for  the  overthrow  of  the 


DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  CHRISTIANITY  IN  JAPAN.   109 

government.  Sado,  whose  mines  were  worked  by 
thousands  of  Christian  exiles,  was  to  be  the  centre 
of  the  outbreak,  its  governor,  Okubo,  being  chosen 
as  the  leader  and  the  proposed  new  ruler  of  the 
land. 

lyeyasu,  awakened  to  the  danger,  now  took  active 
steps  to  crush  out  the  foreign  faith.  A  large  num- 
ber of  friars  and  Jesuits,  with  native  priests,  were 
forcibly  sent  from  the  country,  while  the  siege  and 
capture  of  the  castle  of  Ozaka  in  1615  ended  the 
career  of  all  the  native  friends  of  the  Jesuits,  and 
brought  final  ruin  upon  the  Christian  cause  in  Japan. 

During  the  reigns  of  the  succeeding  shoguns  a 
violent  persecution  began.  The  Dutch  traders,  who 
showed  no  disposition  to  interfere  in  religious  affairs, 
succeeded  in  ousting  their  Portuguese  rivals,  all  for- 
eigners except  Dutch  and  Chinese  being  banished 
from  Japan,  while  foreign  trade  was  confined  to  the 
two  ports  of  Hirado  and  Nagasaki.  This  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  cruel  effort  to  extirpate  what  was  now 
looked  on  as  a  pestilent  foreign  faith.  Orders  were 
issued  that  the  people  should  trample  on  the  cross 
or  on  a  copper  plate  engraved  with  the  image  of 
Christ.  Those  who  refused  were  exposed  to  hor- 
rible persecutions,  being  wrapped  in  sacks  of  straw 
and  burnt  to  death  in  heaps  of  fuel,  while  terrible 
tortures  were  employed  to  make  them  renounce 
their  faith.  Some  were  flung  alive  into  open  graves, 
many  burned  with  the  wood  of  the  crosses  before 
which  they  had  prayed,  others  flung  from  the  edge 
of  precipices.  Yet  they  bore  tortures  and  endured 
death  with  a  fortitude  not  surpassed  by  that  of  the 


110  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

martyrs  of  old,  clinging  with  the  highest  Christian 
ardor  to  their  new  faith. 

In  1637  these  excesses  of  persecution  led  to  an 
insurrection,  the  native  Christians  rising  in  thou- 
sands, seizing  an  old  castle  at  Shimabara,  and  openly 
defying  their  persecutors.  Composed  as  they  were 
of  farmers  and  peasants,  the  commanders  who 
marched  against  them  at  the  head  of  veteran  ar- 
mies looked  for  an  easy  conquest,  but  with  all  their 
efforts  the  insurgents  held  out  against  them  for  two 
months.  The  fortress  was  at  length  reduced  by  the 
aid  of  cannon  taken  from  the  Dutch  traders,  and 
after  the  slaughter  of  great  numbers  of  the  gar- 
rison. The  bloody  work  was  consummated  by  the 
massacre  of  thirty- seven  thousand  Christian  pris- 
oners, and  the  flinging  of  thousands  more  from  a 
precipice  into  the  sea  below.  Many  were  banished, 
and  numbers  escaped  to  Formosa,  whither  others  had 
formerly  made  their  way.  The  "evil  sect"  was  for- 
mally prohibited,  while  edicts  were  issued  declaring 
that  as  long  as  the  sun  should  shine  no  foreigner 
should  enter  Japan  and  no  native  should  leave  it. 
A  slight  exception  was  made  in  favor  of  the  Dutch, 
of  whom  a  small  number  were  permitted  to  reside 
on  the  little  island  of  Deshima,  in  the  harbor  of  Na- 
gasaki, one  trading  ship  being  allowed  to  come  there 
each  year. 

Thus  ended  the  career  of  foreign  trade  and  Euro- 
pean residence  in  Japan.  It  had  continued  for  near- 
ly a  century,  yet  left  no  mark  of  its  presence  except 
the  use  of  gunpowder  and  fire-arms,  the  culture  of 
tobacco  and  the  habit  of  smoking,  the  naturalization 


DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  CHRISTIANITY  IN  JAPAN.   Ill 

of  a  few  foreign  words  and  of  several  strange  dis- 
eases, and,  as  an  odd  addition,  the  introduction  of 
sponge-cake,  still  everywhere  used  as  a  favorite 
viand.  As  for  Christianity,  the  very  name  of  Christ 
became  execrated,  and  was  employed  as  the  most 
abhorrent  word  that  could  be  spoken  in  Japan.  The 
Christian  faith  was  believed  to  be  absolutely  extir- 
pated, and  yet  it  seems  to  have  smouldered  unseen 
during  the  centuries.  As  late  as  1829  seven  persons 
suspected  of  being  Christians  were  crucified  in  Ozaka. 
Yet  in  1860,  when  the  French  missionaries  were  ad- 
mitted to  Nagasaki,  they  found  in  the  surrounding 
villages  no  fewer  than  ten  thousand  people  who  still 
clung  in  secret  to  the  despised  and  persecuted  faith. 
The  French  and  English  had  little  intercourse 
with  Japan,  but  the  career  of  one  Englishman  there 
is  worthy  of  mention.  This  was  a  pilot  named  Will 
Adams,  who  arrived  there  in  1607  and  lived  in  or 
near  Yedo  until  his  death  in  1620.  He  seems  to 
have  been  a  manly  and  honest  fellow,  who  won  the 
esteem  of  the  people  and  the  favor  of  the  shogun, 
by  whom  he  was  made  an  officer  and  given  for  sup- 
port the  revenue  of  a  village.  His  skill  in  ship- 
building and  familiarity  with  foreign  affairs  made 
him  highly  useful,  and  he  was  treated  with  great  re- 
spect and  kindness,  though  not  allowed  to  leave 
Japan.  He  had  left  a  wife  and  daughter  in  England, 
but  married  again  in  Japan,  his  children  there  being 
a  son  and  daughter,  whose  descendants  may  still  be 
found  in  that  country.  Anjin  Cho  (Pilot  Street) 
in  Yedo  was  named  from  him,  and  the  inmates  of 
that  street  honor  his  memory  with  an  annual  cele- 


112  HISTORICAL  TALES. 

bration  on  the  15th  of  June.  His  tomb  may  still 
be  seen  on  one  of  the  hills  overlooking  the  Bay 
of  Yedo,  where  two  neat  stone  shafts,  set  on  a  pedi- 
ment of  stone,  mark  the  burial-place  of  the  only 
foreigner  who  in  past  times  ever  attained  to  honor 
in  Japan. 


THE  CAPTIVITY  OF  CAPTAIN 
GOLOWNIN. 

JAPAN  was  persistent  in  its  policy  of  isolation.  To 
its  people  their  group  of  islands  was  the  world,  and 
they  knew  little  of  and  cared  leas  for  what  was  going 
on  in  all  the  continents  outside.  The  Dutch  vessel 
that  visited  their  shores  once  a  year  served  as  an 
annual  newspaper,  and  satisfied  their  curiosity  as 
to  the  doings  of  mankind.  The  goods  it  brought 
were  little  cared  for,  Japan  being  sufficient  unto 
itself,  so  that  it  served  merely  as  a  window  to  the 
world.  Once  a  year  a  delegation  from  the  Dutch 
settlement  visited  the  capital,  but  the  visitors 
travelled  almost  like  prisoners,  and  were  forced  to 
crawl  in  to  the  mikado  on  their  hands  and  knees 
and  to  back  out  again  in  the  same  crab-like  lashion. 
Some  of  these  envoys  wrote  accounts  of  what  they 
had  seen,  and  that  was  all  that  was  known  of  Japan 
for  two  centuries. 

This  state  of  affairs  could  not  continue.  With  the 
opening  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  ships  of  Europe 
began  to  make  their  way  in  large  numbers  to  the 
North  Pacific,  and  efforts  were  made  to  force  open 
the  locked  gates  of  Japan.  Some  sought  for  food 
and  water.  These  could  be  had  at  Nagasaki,  but 
nowhere  else,  and  were  given  with  a  warning  to 
move  on.  In  some  cases  shipwrecked  Japanese  were 

8  113 


114  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

brought  back  in  foreign  vessels,  but  according  to  law 
such  persons  were  looked  upon  as  no  longer  Japanese, 
and  no  welcome  was  given  to  those  who  brought  them. 
In  other  cases  wrecked  whalers  and  other  mariners 
sought  safety  on  Japanese  soil,  but  they  were  held 
strict  prisoners,  and  rescued  only  with  great  diffi- 
culty. The  law  was  that  foreigners  landing  any- 
where on  the  coast,  except  at  Nagasaki,  should  be 
seized  and  condemned  to  perpetual  imprisonment, 
and  that  those  landing  at  Nagasaki  must  strictly 
abstain  from  Christian  worship. 

Meanwhile  the  Russians  had  become,  through 
their  Siberian  ports,  near  neighbors  of  Japan,  and 
sought  to  open  trade  with  that  country.  In  1793 
Lieutenant  Laxman  landed  at  Hakodate  and  travelled 
overland  to  Matsumai,  bringing  with  him  some  ship- 
wrecked Japanese  and  seeking  for  commercial  rela- 
tions with  Japan.  He  was  treated  with  courtesy, 
but  dismissed  without  an  answer  to  his  demand,  and 
told  that  he  could  take  his  Japanese  back  with  him 
or  leave  them  as  he  pleased. 

In  1804  the  Russians  came  again,  this  time  to 
Nagasaki.  This  vessel  also  brought  back  some  ship- 
wrecked Japanese,  and  had  on  board  a  Russian 
count,  sent  as  ambassador  from  the  czar.  But  the 
shogun  refused  to  receive  the  ambassador  or  to 
accept  his  presents,  and  sent  him  word  that  Japan 
had  little  need  of  foreign  productions,  and  got  all  it 
wanted  from  the  Dutch  and  Chinese.  All  this  was 
said  with  great  politeness,  but  the  ambassador 
thought  that  he  had  been  shabbily  treated,  and 
went  away  angry,  reproaching  the  Dutch  for  his 


THE   CAPTIVITY   OP   CAPTAIN   QOLOWNIN.          115 

failure.  His  anger  against  the  Japanese  was  shown 
in  a  hostile  fashion.  In  1805  he  sent  out  two  small 
vessels,  whose  crews  landed  on  the  island  of  Sagha- 
lien,  plundered  a  Japanese  settlement  there,  carried 
off  some  prisoners,  and  left  behind  a  written  state- 
ment that  this  had  been  done  to  revenge  the  slights 
put  upon  the  Eussian  ambassador. 

This  violence  was  amply  repaid  by  the  Japanese. 
How  they  did  so  we  have  now  to  tell.  In  1811  Cap- 
tain Golownin,  an  intelligent  and  educated  officer  of 
the  Eussian  navy,  was  sent  in  command  of  the  sloop- 
of-war  Diana  to  explore  the  Kurile  Islands.  These 
belonged  to  Japan,  and  were  partly  settled.  At  the 
south  end  of  Kunashir,  one  of  these  islands,  was  a 
Japanese  settlement,  with  a  garrison.  Here  Golow- 
nin, having  landed  with  two  officers,  four  men,  and 
an  interpreter,  was  invited  into  the  fort.  He  en- 
tered unsuspectingly,  but  suddenly  found  himself 
detained  as  a  prisoner,  and  held  as  such  despite  all 
the  efforts  of  the  Diana  to  obtain  his  release. 

The  prisoners  were  at  once  bound  with  small  cords 
in  a  most  painful  way,  their  elbows  being  drawn 
behind  their  backs  until  they  almost  touched,  and 
their  hands  firmly  tied  together,  the  cords  being 
also  brought  in  loops  around  their  breasts  and  necks. 
A  long  cord  proceeded  from  these  fastenings  and  was 
held  by  a  Japanese,  who,  if  an  attempt  were  made 
to  escape,  had  only  to  pull  it  to  bring  the  elbows 
together  with  great  pain  and  to  tighten  the  loop 
around  the  neck  so  as  nearly  to  strangle  the  prisoner. 
Their  ankles  and  knees  were  also  firmly  bound. 

In  this  condition  they  were  conveyed  to  Hako- 


116  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

date,  in  the  island  of  Yeso,  a  distance  of  six  or  seven 
hundred  miles,  being  carried,  on  the  land  part  of  the 
route,  in  a  sort  of  palanquin  made  of  planks,  unless 
they  preferred  to  walk,  in  which  case  the  cords  were 
loosened  about  their  legs.  At  night  they  were 
trussed  up  more  closely  still,  and  the  ends  of  their 
ropes  tied  to  iron  hooks  in  the  wall.  The  cords  were 
drawn  so  tight  as  in  time  to  cut  into  the  flesh,  yet 
for  six  or  seven  days  their  guards  refused  to  loosen 
them,  despite  their  piteous  appeals,  being  fearful 
that  their  prisoners  might  commit  suicide,  this  being 
the  favorite  Japanese  method  in  extremity. 

The  escort  consisted  of  nearly  two  hundred  men. 
Two  Japanese  guides,  changed  at  each  new  district, 
led  the  way,  carrying  handsomely  carved  staves. 
Three  soldiers  followed.  Then  came  Captain  Golow- 
nin,  with  a  soldier  on  one  side,  and  on  the  other  an 
attendant  with  a  twig  to  drive  off  the  gnats,  from 
whose  troublesome  attacks  he  was  unable  to  defend 
himself.  Next  came  an  officer  holding  the  end  of 
the  rope  that  bound  him,  followed  by  a  party  carry- 
ing his  litter  or  palanquin.  Each  of  the  prisoners 
was  escorted  in  the  same  manner.  In  the  rear  came 
three  soldiers,  and  a  number  of  servants  carrying 
provisions  and  baggage. 

Aside  from  their  bonds,  the  captives  were  well 
treated,  being  supplied  with  three  meals  a  day,  con- 
sisting of  rice  gruel,  soup  made  of  radishes  or  other 
roots,  a  kind  of  macaroni,  and  a  piece  of  fish.  Mush- 
rooms or  hard-boiled  eggs  were  sometimes  supplied. 

Golownin's  bitter  complaints  at  length  had  the 
effect  of  a  loosening  of  their  bonds,  which  enabled 


THE   CAPTIVITY   OF   CAPTAIN   GOLOWNIN.          117 

them  to  get  along  more  comfortably.  Their  guards 
took  great  care  of  their  health,  making  frequent 
halts  to  rest,  and  carrying  them  across  all  the  streams, 
so  that  they  should  not  wet  their  feet.  In  case  of 
rain  they  furnished  them  with  Japanese  quilted 
gowns  for  protection.  In  all  the  villages  the  inhab- 
itants viewed  them  with  great  curiosity,  and  at 
Hakodate  the  street  was  crowded  with  spectators, 
some  with  silk  dresses  and  mounted  on  richly  capari- 
soned horses.  None  of  the  people  showed  any  sign 
of  malice  or  any  disposition  to  insult  the  prisoners, 
while  in  their  journey  they  were  cheered  by  many 
displays  of  sympathy  and  piety. 

At  Hakodate  they  were  imprisoned  in  a  long, 
barn-like  building,  divided  into  apartments  hardly 
lix  feet  square,  each  formed  of  thick  spars  and  re- 
sembling a  cage.  Outside  were  a  high  fence  and  an 
earthen  wall.  Here  their  food  was  much  worse  than 
that  on  the  journey.  While  here  they  were  several 
times  examined,  being  conducted  through  the  streets 
to  a  castle-like  building,  where  they  were  brought 
into  the  presence  of  the  governor  and  several  other 
officials,  who  put  to  them  a  great  variety  of  ques- 
tions, some  of  them  of  the  most  trivial  character. 
A  letter  was  also  brought  them,  which  had  been 
sent  on  shore  from  the  Diana  along  with  their  bag- 
gage, and  which  said  that  the  ship  would  return  to 
Siberia  for  reinforcements,  and  then  would  never 
leave  Japan  till  the  prisoners  were  released. 

Some  time  afterwards  the  captives  were  removed 
to  Matsumai,  being  supplied  with  horses  on  the 
journey,  but  still  to  some  extent  fettered  with  ropes. 


118  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

Here  they  were  received  by  a  greater  crowd  than 
before,  Matsumai  being  a  more  important  town  than 
Hakodate.  Their  prison  was  similar  to  the  pre- 
ceding one,  but  their  food  was  much  better,  and  after 
a  time  they  were  released  from  their  cage-like  cells 
and  permitted  to  dwell  together  in  a  large  room. 
They  were,  as  before,  frequently  examined,  their 
captors  being  so  inquisitive  and  asking  such  trifling 
and  absurd  questions  that  at  times  they  grew  so 
annoyed  as  to  refuse  to  answer.  But  no  display  of 
passion  affected  the  politeness  of  the  Japanese,  whose 
coolness  and  courtesy  seemed  unlimited. 

Thus  the  first  winter  of  their  captivity  was  passed. 
In  the  spring  they  were  given  more  liberty,  being 
allowed  to  take  walks  in  the  vicinity  of  the  town. 
Soon  after  they  were  removed  from  their  prison  to 
a  dwelling  of  three  apartments,  though  they  were 
still  closely  watched. 

This  strict  confinement,  of  which  they  could  see 
no  end,  at  length  became  so  irksome  that  the  pris- 
oners determined  to  escape.  Their  walks  had  made 
them  familiar  with  the  character  of  the  surrounding 
country,  and  enabled  them  also  to  gain  possession 
of  a  few  tools,  with  which  they  managed  to  make  a 
tunnel  to  the  outer  air.  Leaving  their  cells  at  night, 
they  succeeded  in  reaching  the  mountains  back  of 
the  town,  whence  they  hoped  to  find  some  means 
of  escaping  by  sea. 

But  in  the  flight  Golownin  had  hurt  his  leg 
severely,  the  pain  being  so  great  that  he  was 
scarcely  able  to  walk.  This  prevented  the  fugitives 
from  getting  far  from  the  town,  while  their  wander- 


THE   CAPTIVITY   OF   CAPTAIN    GOLOWNIN.          119 

ings  through  the  mountains  were  attended  with 
many  difficulties  and  dangers.  After  a  week  thus 
spent,  they  were  forced  to  seek  the  coast,  where 
they  were  seen  and  recaptured. 

The  captives  were  now  confined  in  the  common 
jail  of  the  town,  though  they  were  not  treated  any 
more  harshly  than  before,  and  no  ill  will  was  shown 
them  by  the  officials.  Even  the  soldier  who  was 
most  blamed  for  their  escape  treated  them  with  his 
former  kindness.  They  were  so.on  sent  back  to  their 
old  prison,  where  they  passed  a  second  winter,  re- 
ceiving while  there  visits  from  a  Japanese  astronomer 
and  others  in  search  of  information.  One  old  officer, 
who  was  very  civil  to  them,  at  one  time  brought  them 
portraits  of  three  richly  dressed  Japanese  ladies,  tell- 
ing them  to  keep  them,  as  they  might  enjoy  looking 
at  them  when  time  hung  heavy  on  their  hands. 

Meanwhile  their  countrymen  were  making  earnest 
efforts  to  obtain  their  release.  Some  months  after 
their  capture  the  Diana,  now  under  Captain  Ei- 
kord,  returned  to  Kunashir,  bringing  one  of  the  Jap- 
anese who  had  been  taken  prisoner  in  the  descent  on 
Saghalien.  The  other  had  died.  Six  other  Japanese, 
who  had  been  lately  shipwrecked,  were  brought,  in 
the  hope  of  exchanging  these  seven  for  the  seven 
prisoners.  Efforts  were  made  to  communicate  with 
the  Japanese,  but  they  refused  to  receive  the  Russian 
message,  and  sent  back  word  that  the  prisoners  were 
all  dead.  Two  of  the  Japanese  sent  ashore  failed  to 
return. 

Rikord,  weary  of  the  delay  and  discourtesy  shown, 
now  resolved  to  take  more  vigorous  action,  and 


120  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

seized  upon  a  large  Japanese  ship  that  entered  the 
bay,  taking  prisoner  the  captain,  who  seemed  to  be 
a  person  of  distinction,  and  who  told  them  that  six 
of  the  Eussians  were  in  the  town  of  Matsumai.  Not 
fully  crediting  this,  Bikord  resolved  to  carry  his 
captive  to  Kamchatka,  hoping  to  obtain  from  him 
some  useful  information  concerning  the  purposes  of 
the  Japanese  government.  At  Rikord's  request  the 
merchant  wrote  a  letter  to  the  commander  of  the 
fort  at  Kunashir,  telling  him  what  was  proposed. 
No  answer  was  returned,  and  when  the  boats  tried 
to  land  for  water  they  were  fired  upon.  The  guns 
were  also  turned  upon  the  Diana  whenever  she  ap- 
proached the  shore,  but  with  such  wretched  aim  that 
the  Russians  only  laughed  at  it. 

In  the  following  summer  the  Diana  returned  to 
Kunashir,  bringing  Kachi,  the  merchant,  who  had 
been  seriously  ill  from  homesickness,  and  two  of  his 
attendants,  the  others  having  died.  The  two  attend- 
ants were  sent  on  shore,  Kachi  bidding  them  to  tell 
that  he  had  been  very  well  treated,  and  that  the 
ship  had  made  an  early  return  on  account  of  his 
health.  On  the  next  day  Rikord  unconditionally  set 
free  his  caj^ive,  trusting  to  his  honor  for  his  doing 
all  he  could  to  procure  the  release  of  the  prisoners. 

Kachi  kept  his  word,  and  soon  was  able  to  obtain 
a  letter  in  the  handwriting  of  Golownin,  stating  that 
he  and  his  companions  were  all  alive  and  well  at 
Matsumai.  Afterwards  one  of  the  Russian  sailors 
was  brought  to  Kunashir  and  sent  on  board  the 
Diana,  with  the  understanding  that  he  would  return 
to  the  fort  every  night.  Despite  the  watchfulness 


THE   CAPTIVITY   OF   CAPTAIN   GOLOWNIN.          121 

of  the  Japanese,  he  succeeded  in  bringing  a  letter 
from  Golownin,  which  he  had  sewed  into  his  jacket. 
This  advised  Eikord  to  be  prudent,  civil,  and  patient, 
and  not  to  send  him  any  letters  or  papers  which 
would  cause  him  to  be  tormented  with  questions  or 
translations.  In  truth,  he  had  been  fairly  tortured 
by  the  refinements  of  Japanese  curiosity.  Finally  an 
ultimatum  was  obtained  from  the  Japanese,  who  re- 
fused to  deliver  up  their  prisoners  until  they  received 
from  the  authorities  at  Okhotsk  a  formal  written 
statement  that  they  had  not  ordered  the  hostile  pro- 
ceedings at  Saghalien.  The  Diana  returned  for 
this,  and  in  October  made  her  appearance  at  Hako- 
date, bearing  the  letter  required  and  another  from 
the  governor  of  Irkutsk. 

The  ship  had  no  sooner  entered  the  harbor  than 
it  was  surrounded  by  a  multitude  of  boats,  of  all 
kinds  and  sizes,  filled  with  the  curious  of  both  sexes, 
many  of  whom  had  never  before  set  eyes  on  a  Eu- 
ropean vessel.  They  were  in  such  numbers  that  the 
watch-boats,  filled  with  soldiers,  had  great  ado  to  keep 
them  back. 

Kachi  came  on  board  the  next  morning,  and  was 
given  the  letter  from  the  governor  of  Okhotsk.  The 
other  Eikord  would  not  deliver  except  in  person, 
and  after  much  delay  an  interview  with  the  gov- 
ernor was  arranged,  at  which  Rikord  was  received 
with  much  state  and  ceremony.  The  letter  of  the 
governor  of  Irkutsk  was  now  formally  delivered,  in 
a  box  covered  with  purple  cloth,  its  reception  being 
followed  by  an  entertainment  composed  of  tea  and 
sweetmeats. 


122  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

Meanwhile  Golownin  and  his  companions,  from 
the  time  the  Diana  set  out  for  Okhotsk,  had  been 
treated  rather  as  guests  than  as  prisoners.  They 
were  now  brought  to  Hakodate  and  delivered  to 
Bikord,  after  an  imprisonment  of  more  than  two 
years.  With  them  was  sent  a  paper  reiterating 
the  Japanese  policy  of  isolation,  and  declaring  that 
any  ships  that  should  thereafter  present  themselves 
would  be  received  with  cannon-balls  instead  of  com- 
pliments. 

In  all  this  business  Kachi  had  worked  with  tireless 
energy.  At  first  he  was  received  with  reserve  as 
having  come  from  a  foreign  country.  He  was  placed 
under  guard,  and  for  a  long  time  was  not  permitted 
to  see  Golownin,  but  by  dint  of  persistence  had  done 
much  in  favor  of  the  release  of  the  prisoners. 

His  abduction  had  thrown  his  family  into  the 
greatest  distress,  and  his  wife  had  made  a  pilgrimage 
through  all  Japan,  as  a  sort  of  penitential  offering  to 
the  favoring  gods.  During  his  absence  his  business 
had  prospered,  and  before  the  departure  of  the 
Diana  he  presented  the  crew  with  dresses  of  silk 
and  cotton  wadding,  the  best  to  his  favorites,  the 
cook  being  especially  remembered.  He  then  begged 
permission  to  treat  the  crew. 

"  Sailors  are  all  alike,"  he  said,  "  whether  Kussian 
or  Japanese.  They  are  all  fond  of  a  glass ;  and 
there  is  no  danger  in  the  harbor  of  Hakodate." 

So  that  night  the  crew  of  the  Diana  enjoyed  a 
genuine  sailors'  holiday,  with  a  plentiful  supply  of 
Baki  and  Japanese  tobacco. 


THE  OPENING  OF  JAPAN. 

ON  the  8th  of  July,  1853,  the  Japanese  were 
treated  to  a  genuine  surprise.  Off  Cape  Idsu,  the 
outer  extremity  of  the  Bay  of  Yedo,  appeared  a 
squadron  of  war-vessels  bound  inward  under  full 
sail,  in  bold  disregard  of  the  lines  of  prohibition 
which  Japan  had  drawn  across  the  entrance  of  all 
her  ports.  Eounding  the  high  mountains  of  the 
promontory  of  Idsu,  by  noon  the  fleet  reached  Cape 
Sagami,  which  forms  the  dividing  line  between  the 
outer  and  inner  sections  of  the  Bay  of  Yedo.  Here 
the  shores  rose  in  abrupt  bluffs,  furrowed  by  green 
dells,  while  in  the  distance  could  be  seen  groves  and 
cultivated  fields.  From  the  cape  a  number  of  vessels 
put  out  to  intercept  the  squadron,  but,  heedless  of 
these,  it  kept  on  through  the  narrow  part  of  the  bay — 
from  five  to  eight  miles  wide — and  entered  the  inner 
bay,  which  expands  to  a  width  of  more  than  fifteen 
miles.  Here  the  ships  dropped  anchor  within  full 
view  of  the  town  of  Uragawa,  having  broken  through 
the  invisible  bonds  which  Japan  had  so  long  drawn 
around  her  coasts. 

During  the  period  between  the  release  of  the 
Russian  captives  and  the  date  of  this  visit  various 
foreign  vessels  had  appeared  on  the  coast  of  Japan, 
each  with  some  special  excuse  for  its  presence,  yet 
each  arbitrarily  ordered  to  leave.  One  of  these,  an 

123 


124  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

American  trading  vessel,  the  Morrison,  had  been 
driven  off  with  musketry  and  artillery,  although  she 
had  come  to  return  a  number  of  shipwrecked  Jap- 
anese. Some  naval  vessels  had  entered  the  Bay  of 
Yedo,  but  had  been  met  with  such  vigorous  oppo- 
sition that  they  made  their  visits  very  short,  and  as 
late  as  1850  the  Japanese  notified  foreign  nations 
that  they  proposed  to  maintain  their  rigorous  system 
of  exclusion.  No  dream  came  to  them  of  the  re- 
markable change  in  their  policy  which  a  few  decades 
were  to  bring  forth. 

They  did  not  know  that  they  were  seeking  to 
maintain  an  impossible  situation.  China  had  adopted 
a  similar  policy,  but  already  the  cannon-balls  of  for- 
eign powers  had  produced  a  change  of  view.  If 
Japan  had  not  peaceably  yielded,  the  hard  hand  of 
war  must  soon  have  broken  down  her  bars.  For  in 
addition  to  Eussia  there  was  now  another  civilized 
power  with  ports  on  the  Pacific,  the  United  States. 
And  the  fleets  of  the  European  powers  were  making 
their  way  in  growing  numbers  to  those  waters.  In 
a  period  when  all  the  earth  was  being  opened  to 
commercial  intercourse,  Japan  could  not  hope  long 
to  remain  a  little  world  in  herself,  like  a  separate 
planet  in  space. 

It  was  the  settlement  of  California,  and  the  in- 
crease of  American  interests  on  the  Pacific,  that  in- 
duced the  United  States  to  make  a  vigorous  effort  to 
open  the  ports  of  Japan.  Hitherto  all  nations  had 
yielded  to  the  resolute  policy  of  the  islanders ;  now 
it  was  determined  to  send  an  expedition  with  in- 
structions not  to  take  no  for  an  answer,  but  to  insist 


THE  OPENING  OP  JAPAN.  125 

on  the  Japanese  adopting  the  policy  of  civilized 
nations  in  general.  It  was  with  this  purpose  that 
the  fleet  in  question  had  entered  the  Bay  of  Yedo. 
It  was  under  command  of  Commodore  Matthew  C. 
Perry,  who  bore  a  letter  from  the  President  of  the 
United  States  to  the  Emperor  of  Japan,  suggesting 
the  desirability  of  commercial  relations  between  the 
two  countries,  requesting  the  supply  of  American 
vessels  with  coal  and  provisions,  and  demanding  the 
kind  treatment  and  prompt  return  of  shipwrecked 
mariners.  This  letter,  splendidly  engrossed,  was  en- 
closed in  a  golden  box  of  a  thousand  dollars  in  value, 
and  was  accompanied  by  numerous  presents.  The 
fleet  consisted  of  the  steam-frigates  Susquehanna 
and  Mississippi  and  the  sloops-of-war  Plymouth  and 
Saratoga,  being  the  most  imposing  armament  that 
had  ever  entered  a  Japanese  port.  Perry  was  de- 
termined to  maintain  his  dignity  as  a  representative 
of  the  United  States,  and  to  demand  as  a  right,  in- 
stead of  soliciting  as  a  favor,  the  courtesies  due  from 
one  civilized  nation  to  another. 

The  ships  had  no  sooner  dropped  anchor  in  the 
bay  than  several  guns  were  fired  from  a  neighboring 
point  and  a  number  of  boats  put  off  from  the  shore. 
In  the  stern  of  each  were  a  small  flag  and  several  men 
wearing  two  swords,  evidently  persons  in  authority. 
These  boats  were  stopped  at  the  ships'  sides,  and 
their  inmates  told  that  no  person  could  be  admitted 
on  board  except  the  principal  official  of  the  town, 
the  high  rank  of  the  commodore  forbidding  him  to 
meet  any  lesser  dignitary.  As  one  of  the  visitors 
represented  that  he  was  second  in  rank  in  the  town, 


126  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

he  was  finally  received  on  board  the  flag-ship,  but 
the  commodore  declined  to  see  him,  turning  him  over 
io  Mr.  Contee,  the  flag  lieutenant. 

A  long  interview  followed,  in  which  the  official 
was  made  to  understand  that  the  expedition  bore  a 
letter  from  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  the 
emperor,  a  message  of  such  importance  that  it  could 
be  delivered  only  to  an  officer  of  high  rank.  He 
was  also  told,  through  the  interpreters,  that  the 
squadron  would  not  submit  to  be  placed  under  guard, 
and  that  all  the  guard-boats  must  withdraw.  The 
official  displayed  much  of  the  inquisitive  curiosity 
for  which  the  Japanese  had  made  themselves  notable 
on  former  occasions,  and  asked  a  variety  of  unim- 
portant questions  which  the  lieutenant  refused  to 
answer,  saying  that  they  were  impertinent. 

The  Japanese  officer  had  brought  with  him  the 
ordinary  notifications,  warning  all  ships  against  en- 
tering their  ports,  but  these  the  lieutenant  refused 
to  receive.  Returning  to  the  shore,  in  about  an  hour 
the  officer  came  back,  saying  that  his  superior  could 
not  receive  the  letter  addressed  to  the  emperor,  and 
stating  that  Nagasaki  was  the  proper  place  for 
foreign  ships  to  stop.  As  for  the  letter,  he  doubted 
if  it  would  be  received  and  answered.  He  was  at 
once  given  to  understand  that  if  the  governor  of  the 
town  did  not  send  for  the  letter,  the  ships  would 
proceed  up  the  bay  to  Yedo  and  deliver  it  them- 
selves. At  this  he  withdrew  in  a  state  of  great  agi- 
tation, asking  permission  to  return  in  the  morning. 

During  the  night  watch-fires  blazed  at  points 
along  the  coast,  and  bells  sounded  the  hours.  The 


THE   OPENING   OF   JAPAN.  127 

watch-boats  remained  around  the  fleet,  but  kept  at  a 
respectful  distance  from  the  perilous  intruders.  The 
next  morning  the  highest  official  of  the  town  came 
on  board,  but  did  his  utmost  to  avoid  receiving  the 
letter.  In  the  end  he  offered  to  send  to  Yedo  for 
permission,  and  was  granted  three  days  for  this  pur- 
pose. 

While  awaiting  an  answer  the  ships  were  not  idle. 
Surveying  parties  were  sent  four  miles  up  the  bay, 
sounding,  and  finding  everywhere  a  depth  of  from 
thirty  to  forty  fathoms.  As  they  approached  the 
forts  armed  soldiers  came  out,  but  retired  again 
when  the  boats  drew  nearer.  The  forts,  five  in  num- 
ber, were  very  feeble,  their  total  armament  consist- 
ing of  fourteen  guns,  none  larger  than  nine-pounders. 
Many  of  the  soldiers  were  armed  with  spears.  Can- 
vas screens  were  stretched  from  tree  to  tree,  as 
if  with  the  idea  that  these  would  keep  back  cannon- 
balls.  In  truth,  the  means  of  defence  were  so  slight 
that  Yedo  lay  at  the  mercy  of  the  American  fleet. 

Villages  seemed  to  line  the  shores  in  an  unbroken 
series,  and  numerous  small  craft  lay  in  the  harbor, 
while  trading  vessels  came  in  and  out  with  little  re- 
gard to  the  presence  of  the  foreign  ships.  Every 
day  there  passed  up  and  down  the  bay  nearly  a 
hundred  large  junks  and  a  great  number  of  fishing 
and  other  boats. 

Yezaimon,  the  governor  of  the  town,  protested 
earnestly  against  the  survey  of  the  waters  by  the 
ships,  saying  that  it  was  against  the  laws  of  Japan. 
He  was  told  that  it  was  commanded  by  the  laws  of 
America,  and  the  soundings  went  steadily  on.  On 


128  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

the  second  day  the  surveying  party  proceeded  some 
ten  miles  up  the  bay,  the  Mississippi  steaming  in 
their  wake.  This  roused  new  agitation  in  the 
Japanese,  government  boats  meeting  them  at  every 
point  and  making  earnest  signs  to  them  to  return. 
But  no  notice  was  taken  of  these  gestures,  and  the 
survey  was  continued,  deep  soundings  and  soft  bottom 
being  found  throughout. 

In  the  evening  Yezaimon  came  on  board  with  a 
cheerful  countenance,  saying  that  he  expected  good 
news  from  Yedo,  though  he  protested  still  against 
the  doings  of  the  boats.  One  of  the  officers  speaks  of 
him  as  a  "gentleman,  clever,  polished,  well  informed, 
a  fine,  large  man,  about  thirty-four,  of  most  excel- 
lent countenance,  taking  his  wine  freely,  and  a  boon 
companion." 

On  the  12th  word  came  that  the  emperor  would 
send  a  high  officer  to  receive  the  letter.  No  imme- 
diate answer  would  be  given,  but  one  would  be  for- 
warded through  the  Dutch  or  the  Chinese.  This  offer 
the  commodore  rejected  as  insulting.  But,  fearing 
that  he  might  be  detained  by  useless  delay,  he  agreed 
to  withdraw  for  a  proper  interval,  at  the  end  of 
which  he  would  return  to  receive  the  answer. 

On  the  14th  the  reception  of  the  letter  took  place, 
the  occasion  being  made  one  of  much  ceremony. 
The  commodore  landed  with  due  formality,  through 
a  line  of  Japanese  boats,  and  with  a  following  of 
three  hundred  and  twenty  officers  and  sailors  from 
the  fleet.  Passing  through  a  large  body  of  soldiers, 
behind  whom  stood  a  crowd  of  spectators,  the  build- 
ing prepared  for  the  reception  was  reached.  It  was 


THE   OPENING   OP  JAPAN.  129 

a  temporary  structure,  the  reception-room  of  which 
was  hung  with  fine  cloth,  stamped  with  the  imperial 
symbols  in  white  on  a  violet  background.  The 
princes  of  Idsu  and  Iwami  awaited  as  the  envoys  of 
the  shogun,  both  of  them  splendidly  attired  in  richly 
embroidered  robes  of  silk. 

A  large  scarlet-lacquered  box,  on  gilded  feet,  stood 
ready  to  receive  the  letter,  which,  after  being  shown 
in  its  rich  receptacle,  was  placed  on  the  scarlet  box, 
with  translations  in  Dutch  and  Chinese.  A  formal 
receipt  was  given,  ending  with  the  following  words : 
"  Because  the  place  is  not  designed  to  treat  of  any- 
thing from  foreigners,  so  neither  can  conference  nor 
entertainment  take  place.  The  letter  being  received, 
you  will  leave  here." 

"  I  shall  return  again,  probably  in  April  or  May, 
for  an  answer,"  said  the  commodore,  on  receiving  the 
receipt. 

"  "With  all  the  ships  ?"  asked  the  interpreter. 

"  Yes,  and  probably  with  more,"  was  the  reply. 

This  said,  the  commodore  rose  and  departed,  the 
commissioners  standing,  but  not  another  word  being 
uttered  on  either  side.  As  if  to  indicate  to  his  hosts 
how  little  he  regarded  the  curt  order  to  leave,  the 
commodore  proceeded  in  the  Susquehanna  up  the 
bay  to  the  point  the  Mississippi  had  reached.  Here 
he  dropped  anchor,  the  spot  being  afterwards  known 
as  the  "American  anchorage."  On  the  following 
day  he  sent  the  Mississippi  ten  miles  higher  up,  a 
point  being  reached  within  eight  or  ten  miles  of  the 
capital.  Three  or  four  miles  in  advance  a  crowded 
mass  of  shipping  was  seen,  supposed  to  lie  at  Sina- 

9 


130  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

gawa,  the  southern  suburb  of  Yedo.  On  the  16th 
the  vessels  moved  down  the  bay,  and  on  the  follow- 
ing day  they  stood  out  to  sea,  no  doubt  greatly  to 
the  relief  of  the  Japanese  officials. 

In  consequence  of  the  death  of  the  shogun,  which 
took  place  soon  after,  Perry  did  not  return  for  his 
answer  until  the  following  year,  casting  anchor  again 
in  the  Bay  of  Yedo  on  February  12,  1854.  He  had 
now  a  larger  fleet,  consisting  of  three  steam-frigates, 
four  sloops-of-war,  and  two  store-ships.  Entering 
the  bay,  they  came  to  anchor  at  the  point  known  as 
the  "  American  anchorage." 

And  now  a  debate  arose  as  to  where  the  ceremo- 
nies of  reception  should  take  place.  The  Japanese 
wished  the  commodore  to  withdraw  to  a  point  down 
the  bay,  some  twenty  miles  below  Uragawa.  He,  on 
the  contrary,  insisted  on  going  to  Yedo,  and  sent 
boats  up  to  within  four  miles  of  that  city  to  sound 
the  channel.  Finally  the  village  of  Yokohama,  oppo- 
site the  anchorage  of  the  ships,  was  fixed  upon. 

On  the  8th  of  March  the  first  reception  took  place, 
great  formality  being  observed,  though  this  time 
light  refreshments  were  offered.  Two  audiences  a 
w,eek  were  subsequently  held,  at  one  of  which,  on 
March  13,  the  American  presents  were  delivered. 
They  consisted  of  cloths,  agricultural  implements,  fire- 
arms, and  other  articles,  the  most  valuable  being  a 
small  locomotive,  tender,  and  car,  which  were  set  in 
motion  on  a  circular  track.  A  mile  of  telegraph 
wire  was  also  set  up  and  operated,  this  interesting 
the  Japanese  more  than  anything  else.  The}7  had 
the  art,  however,  of  concealing  their  feelings,  and 


THE   OPENING   OF   JAPAN.  131 

took  care  to  show  no  wonder  at  anything  dis- 
played. 

In  the  letter  of  reply  from  the  shogun  it  was  con- 
ceded that  the  demands  in  relation  to  shipwrecked 
sailors,  coal,  provisions,  water,  etc.,  were  just,  and 
there  was  shown  a  willingness  to  add  a  new  harbor 
to  that  of  Nagasaki,  but  five  years'  delay  in  its  open- 
ing were  asked.  To  this  the  commodore  would  not 
accede,  nor  would  he  consent  to  be  bound  by  the 
restrictions  placed  on  the  Dutch  and  Chinese.  He 
demanded  three  harbors,  one  each  in  Hondo,  Yezo, 
and  the  Loochoo  Islands,  but  finally  agreed  to  accept 
two,  the  port  of  Simoda  in  Hondo  and  that  of  Hako- 
date in  Yezo.  An  agreement  being  at  length  reached, 
three  copies  of  the  treaty  were  exchanged,  and  this 
was  followed  by  an  entertainment  on  the  fleet  to  the 
Japanese  officials,  in  which  they  did  full  justice  to 
American  fare,  and  seemed  to  be  particularly  fond 
of  champagne.  One  of  them  became  so  merry  and 
familiar  under  the  influence  of  this  beverage  that  he 
vigorously  embraced  the  commodore,  who  bore  the 
infliction  with  good-humored  patience. 

At  the  new  treaty  ports  the  restrictions  which 
had  been  thrown  around  the  Dutch  at  Nagasaki 
were  removed,  citizens  of  the  United  States  being 
free  to  go  where  they  pleased  within  a  limit  of  sev- 
eral miles  around  the  towns. 

The  success  of  the  Americans  in  this  negotiation 
stimulated  the  other  maritime  nations,  and  in  the 
same  year  a  British  fleet  visited  Nagasaki  and  ob- 
tained commercial  concessions.  In  1858  the  treaties 
were  extended,  the  port  of  Yokohama  replacing  that 


132  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

of  Simoda,  and  the  treaty  ports  being  opened  to 
American,  British,  French,  and  Dutch  traders.  Sub- 
sequently the  same  privileges  were  granted  to  the 
other  commercial  nations,  the  country  was  made  free 
to  travellers,  and  the  long-continued  isolation  of 
Japan  was  completely  broken  down.  A  brief  ex- 
perience of  the  advantages  of  commerce  and  foreign 
intercourse  convinced  the  quick-witted  islanders  of 
the  folly  of  their  ancient  isolation,  and  they  threw 
open  their  country  without  restriction  to  all  the 
good  the  world  had  to  offer  and  to  the  fullest  inflow 
of  modern  ideas. 


THE  MIKADO  COMES  TO  HIS 
OWN  AGAIN. 

THE  visit  of  Commodore  Perry  to  Japan  and  the 
signing  of  a  treaty  of  commerce  with  the  United 
States  formed  a  great  turning-point  in  the  history 
of  that  ancient  empire.  Through  its  influence  the 
mikado  came  to  his  own  again,  after  being  for  seven 
centuries  virtually  the  vassal  of  the  shogun.  So 
long  had  he  vanished  from  sight  that  the  people 
looked  upon  him  as  a  far-off  spiritual  dignitary,  and 
had  forgotten  that  he  was  once  the  supreme  lord  of 
the  land.  During  all  this  time  the  imperial  court 
had  been  kept  up,  with  its  prime  minister,  its  officials 
and  nobles, — with  everything  except  authority.  The 
court  dignitaries  ranked,  in  their  own  conceit  and 
their  ancient  titles,  far  above  the  shogun  and  daimios, 
the  military  leaders,  but  they  were  like  so  many 
actors  on  the  stage,  playing  at  power.  The  shogun, 
with  the  power  at  his  command,  might  have  made 
himself  the  supreme  dignitary,  but  it  was  easier  to 
let  the  sleepy  court  at  Kioto  alone,  leaving  them  the 
shadow  of  that  power  of  which  the  substance  was 
in  the  shogun's  hands. 

Yet  there  was  always  a  risk  in  this.  The  sleeping 
emperor  might  at  any  time  awake,  call  the  people 
and  the  army  to  his  aid,  and  break  through  the  web 
that  the  great  spider  of  military  rule  had  woven 

133 


134  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

about  his  court.  Some  great  event  might  stir  Japan 
to  its  depths  and  cause  a  vital  change  in  the  state 
of  affairs.  Such  an  event  came  in  the  visit  of  the 
American  fleet  and  the  signing  of  a  treaty  of  com- 
merce and  intercourse  by  the  Tai  Kun,  or  great  sov- 
ereign of  Japan,  as  the  shogun  signed  himself. 

For  two  centuries  and  a  half  Japan  had  been  at 
peace.  For  nearly  that  length  of  time  foreigners 
had  been  forbidden  to  set  foot  on  its  soil.  They 
were  looked  upon  as  barbarians,  "  foreign  devils"  the 
islanders  called  them,  the  trouble  they  had  caused 
long  before  was  not  forgotten,  and  throughout  the 
island  empire  they  were  hated  or  despised. 

The  visit -of  the  American  fleet  was,  therefore, 
sure  to  send  a  stir  of  deep  feeling  throughout  the 
land.  During  this  period  of  excitement  the  shogun 
died,  and  the  power  was  seized  by  li,  the  regent,  a 
daring  and  able  man,  who  chose  as  shogun  a  boy 
twelve  years  old,  imprisoned,  exiled,  or  beheaded  all 
who  opposed  him,  and  was  suspected  of  an  intention 
to  depose  the  mikado  and  set  up  a  boy  emperor  in 
his  place. 

All  this  aroused  new  excitement  in  Japan.  But 
the  opposition  to  these  acts  of  the  regent  would  not 
have  grown  to  revolution  had  no  more  been  done. 
The  explosion  came  when  li  signed  a  treaty  with 
the  foreigners,  a  right  which  belonged  only  to  the 
mikado,  and  sent  word  to  Kioto  that  the  exigency 
of  the  occasion  had  forced. him  to  take  this  action. 

The  feeling  that  followed  was  intense.  The 
country  became  divided  into  two  parties,  that  of  the 
mikado,  which  opposed  the  foreigners,  and  that  of 


THE   MIKADO   COMES   TO   HIS  OWN   AGAIN.         135 

the  shogun,  which  favored  them.  "  Honor  the 
mikado  and  expel  the  barbarians,"  became  the  pa- 
triot watchword,  and  in  all  directions  excited  parti- 
sans roamed  the  land,  vowing  that  they  would  kill 
the  regent  and  his  new  friends  and  that  they  were 
ready  to  die  for  the  true  emperor.  Their  fury  bore 
fruit.  li  was  assassinated.  At  the  moment  when  a 
strong  hand  was  most  needed,  that  of  the  'regent  was 
removed.  And  as  the  feeling  of  bitterness  against 
the  foreigners  grew,  the  influence  of  the  shogun  de- 
clined. The  youthful  dignitary  was  obliged  by  public 
opinion  to  visit  Kioto  and  do  homage  to  the  mikado, 
an  ancient  ceremony  which  had  not  been  performed 
for  two  hundred  and  thirty  years,  and  whose  former 
existence  had  almost  been  forgotten. 

This  was  followed  by  a  still  more  vital  act.  Un- 
der orders  from  the  mikado,  the  shogun  appointed 
the  prince  of  Echizen  premier  of  the  empire.  The 
prince  at  once  took  a  remarkable  step.  For  over 
two  centuries  the  daimios  had  been  forced  to  reside 
in  Yedo.  With  a  word  he  abolished  this  custom, 
and  like  wild  birds  the  feudal  lords  flew  away.  The 
cage  which  had  held  them  so  long  was  open,  and 
they  winged  their  way  to  their  distant  nests.  This 
act  was  fatal  to  the  glory  of  Yedo  and  the  power 
of  its  sovereign  lord.  In  the  words  of  the  native 
chronicler,  "  the  prestige  of  the  Tokugawa  family, 
which  had  endured  for  three  hundred  years,  which 
had  been  as  much  more  brilliant  than  Kamakura  in 
the  age  of  Yoritomo  as  the  moon  is  more  brilliant 
than  the  stars,  which  for  more  than  two  hundred 
and  seventy  years  had  forced  the  daimios  to  take 


136  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

their  turn  of  duty  in  Yedo,  and  which  had,  day 
and  night,  eighty  thousand  vassals  at  its  command, 
fell  to  ruin  in  the  space  of  a  single  day." 

In  truth,  the  revolution  was  largely  completed  by 
this  signal  act.  Many  of  the  daimios  and  their  re- 
tainers, let  loose  from  their  prison,  deserted  the  cause 
of  their  recent  lord.  Their  place  of  assemblage  was 
now  at  Kioto,  which  became  once  more  populous 
and  bustling.  They  strengthened  the  imperial  court 
with  gold  and  pledged  to  it  their  devotion.  Pam- 
phlets were  issued,  some  claiming  that  the  clans 
owed  allegiance  to  the  shogun,  others  that  the 
mikado  was  the  true  and  only  emperor. 

The  first  warlike  step  in  support  of  the  new  ideas 
was  taken  in  1863,  by  the  clan  of  Choshiu,  which 
erected  batteries  at  Shimonoseki,  refused  to  disarm 
at  the  shogun's  order,  and  fired  on  foreign  vessels. 
This  brought  about  a  bombardment,  in  the  following 
year,  by  the  ships  of  four  foreign  nations,  the  most 
important  result  of  which  was  to  teach  the  Japanese 
the  strength  of  the  powers  against  which  they  had 
arrayed  themselves. 

Meanwhile  the  men  of  Choshiu,  the  declared  ad- 
herents of  the  mikado,  urged  him  to  make  a  journey 
to  Yamato,  and  thus  show  to  his  people  that  he  was 
ready  to  take  the  field  in  person  against  the  bar- 
barians. This  suggestion  was  at  first  received  with 
favor,  but  suddenly  the  Choshiu  envoys  and  their 
friends  were  arrested,  the  palace  was  closely  guarded, 
and  all  members  or  retainers  of  the  clan  were  for- 
bidden to  enter  the  capital,  an  order  which  placed 
them  in  the  position  of  outlaws.  The  party  of  the 


THE   MIKADO   COMES   TO   HIS   OWN   AGAIN.         137 

Bhogun  had  made  the  mikado  believe  that  the  clan 
was  plotting  to  seize  his  person  and  through  him  to 
control  the  empire. 

This  act  of  violence  led  to  civil  war.  In  August, 
1864,  the  capital  was  attacked  by  a  body  of  thirteen 
hundred  men  of  the  Choshiu  and  other  disaffected 
clans.  It  was  defended  by  the  adherents  of  the  sho- 
gun,  now  the  supporters  of  the  mikado.  For  two 
days  the  battle  raged,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time 
a  great  part  of  the  city  was  a  heap  of  ashes,  some 
thirty  thousand  edifices  being  destroyed  by  the 
flames.  "The  Blossom  Capital  became  a  scorched 
desert."  The  Choshiu  were  defeated,  but  Kioto  lay 
in  ruins.  A  Japanese  city  is  like  a  house  of  card- 
board, easily  destroyed,  and  almost  as  easily  rebuilt. 

This  conflict  was  followed  by  a  march  in  force 
upon  Choshiu  to  punish  its  rebellious  people.  The 
expedition  was  not  a  popular  one.  Some  powerful 
feudal  lords  refused  to  join  it.  Of  those  mustered  into 
the  ranks  many  became  conveniently  sick,  and  those 
who  marched  were  disorganized  and  without  heart 
for  the  fight.  Choshiu,  on  the  contrary,  was  well 
prepared.  The  clansmen,  who  had  long  been  in  con- 
tact with  the  Dutch,  had  thrown  aside  the  native 
weapons,  were  drilled  in  European  tactics,  and  were 
well  armed  with  rifles  and  artillery.  The  result  was, 
after  a  three  months'  campaign,  the  complete  defeat 
of  the  invading  army,  and  an  almost  fatal  blow  to  the 
prestige  of  the  shogun.  This  defeat  was  immediately 
followed  by  the  death  of  the  young  shogun,  who  had 
been  worn  out  by  the  intense  anxiety  of  his  period 
of  rule. 


138  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

He  was  succeeded  by  the  last  of  the  shoguns, 
Keiki,  appointed  head  of  the  Tokugawa  family  in 
October,  1866,  and  shogun  in  January,  1867.  This 
position  he  had  frequently  declined.  He  was  far  too 
weak  and  fickle  a  man  to  hold  it  at  such  a  time. 
He  was  popular  at  court  because  of  his  opposition 
to  the  admission  of  the  foreigners,  but  he  was  by  no 
means  the  man  to  hold  the  reins  of  government  at 
that  perilous  juncture  of  affairs. 

In  fact,  he  had  hardly  accepted  the  office  when  a 
vigorous  pressure  was  brought  upon  him  to  resign,  in 
which  a  number  of  princes  and  powerful  noblemen 
took  part.  It  was  their  purpose  to  restore  the  ancient 
government  of  the  realm.  Keiki  yielded,  and  in 
November,  1867,  resigned  his  high  office  of  Sei-i  Tai 
Shogun.  During  this  critical  interval  the  mikado 
had  died,  and  a  new  youthful  emperor  had  been 
raised  to  the  throne. 

But  the  imperial  power  was  not  so  easily  to  be  re- 
stored, after  its  many  centuries  of  abrogation.  The 
Aidzu,  the  most  loyal  of  all  the  clans  to  the  shogun, 
and  the  leaders  in  the  war  against  the  Choshiu, 
guarded  the  palace  gates,  and  for  the  time  being 
were  masters  of  the  situation.  Meanwhile  the  party 
of  the  mikado  was  not  idle.  Gradually  small  parties 
of  soldiers  were  sent  by  them  to  the  capital,  and  a 
quiet  influence  was  brought  to  bear  to  induce  the 
court  to  take  advantage  of  the  opportunity  and  by 
a  bold  movement  abolish  the  office  of  shogun  and 
declare  the  young  emperor  the  sole  sovereign  of  the 
realm. 

This  coup-d'etat  was  effected  January  3,  1868.    On 


THE   MIKADO   COMES   TO   HIS   OWN   AGAIN.         139 

that  day  the  introduced  troops  suddenly  look  posses- 
sion of  the  palace  gates,  the  nobles  who  surrounded 
the  emperor  were  dismissed  and  replaced  by  others 
favorable  to  the  movement,  and  an  edict  was  issued 
in  the  name  of  the  mikado  declaring  the  office  of 
shogun  abolished,  and  that  the  sole  government  of 
the  empire  lay  in  the  hands  of  the  mikado  and  his 
court.  New  offices  were  established  and  new  officials 
chosen  to  fill  them,  the  clan  of  Choshiu  was  relieved 
from  the  ban  of  rebellion  and  honored  as  the  sup- 
porter of  the  imperial  power,  and  a  completely  new 
government  was  organized. 

This  decisive  action  led  to  civil  war.  The  ad- 
herents of  the  Tokugawa  clan,  in  high  indignation 
at  this  revolutionary  act,  left  the  capital,  Keiki,  who 
now  sought  to  seize  his  power  again,  at  their  head. 
On  the  27th  of  February  he  marched  upon  Kioto 
with  an  army  of  ten  thousand,  or,  as  some  say,  thirty 
thousand,  men.  The  two  roads  leading  to  the  capital 
had  been  barricaded,  and  were  defended  by  two 
thousand  men,  armed  with  artillery. 

A  fierce  battle  followed,  lasting  for  three  days. 
Greatly  as  the  defenders  of  the  barriers  were  out- 
numbered, their  defences  and  artillery,  with  their 
European  discipline,  gave  them  the  victory.  The 
shogun  was  defeated,  and  fled  with  his  army  to 
Ozaka,  the  castle  of  which  was  captured  and  burned, 
while  he  took  refuge  on  an  American  vessel  in  the 
harbor.  Making  his  way  thence  to  Yedo  in  one  of 
his  own  ships,  he  shut  himself  up  in  his  palace, 
once  more  with  the  purpose  of  withdrawing  from 
the  struggle. 


140  HISTORICAL  TALES. 

His  retainers  and  many  of  the  daimios  and  clans 
urged  him  to  continue  the  war,  declaring  that,  with 
the  large  army  and  abundant  supplies  at  his  com- 
mand, and  the  powerful  fleet  under  his  control,  they 
could  restore  him  to  the  position  he  had  lost.  But 
Keiki  had  had  enough  of  war,  and  could  not  bear 
the  idea  of  being  a  rebel  against  his  liege  lord. 
Declaring  that  he  would  never  take  up  arms  against 
the  mikado,  he  withdrew  from  the  struggle  to  pri- 
vate life. 

In  the  mean  time  the  victorious  forces  of  the 
south  had  reached  the  suburbs  of  Yedo,  and  were 
threatening  to  apply  the  torch  to  that  tinder-box  of 
a  city  unless  it  were  immediately  surrendered.  Their 
commander,  being  advised  of  the  purpose  of  the  sho- 
gun,  promised  to  spare  the  city,  but  assailed  and 
burned  the  magnificent  temple  of  Uyeno,  in  which 
the  rebels  still  in  arms  had  taken  refuge.  For  a 
year  longer  the  war  went  on,  victory  everywhere 
favoring  the  imperial  army.  By  the  1st  of  July, 
1869,  hostilities  were  at  an  end,  and  the  mikado  was 
the  sole  lord  of  the  realm. 

Thus  ended  a  military  domination  that  had  con- 
tinued for  seven  hundred  years.  In  1167,  Kiyomori 
had  made  himself  military  lord  of  the  empire.  In 
1869,  Mutsuhito,  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-third 
mikado  in  lineal  descent,  resumed  the  imperial  power 
which  had  so  long  been  lost.  Unlike  China,  over 
which  so  many  dynasties  have  ruled,  Japan  has  been 
governed  by  a  single  dynasty,  according  to  the  native 
records,  for  more  than  twenty-five  hundred  years. 

The  fall  of  the  shogun  was  followed  by  the  fall  of 


THE   MIKADO   COMES   TO    HIS   OWN   AGAIN.         141 

feudalism.  The  emperor,  for  the  first  time  for  many 
centuries,  came  from  behind  his  screen  and  showed 
himself  openly  to  his  people.  Yedo  was  made  the 
eastern  capital  of  the  realm,  its  name  being  changed 
to  Tokio.  Hither,  in  September,  1871,  the  daimios 
were  once  more  summoned,  and  the  order  was  issued 
that  they  should  give  up  their  strongholds  and  feudal- 
retainers  and  retire  to  private  life.  They  obeyed. 
Resistance  would  have  been  in  vain.  Thus  fell  an- 
other ancient  institution,  eight  centuries  old.  The 
revolution  was  at  an  end.  The  shogunate  and  the 
feudal  system  had  fallen,  to  rise  no  more.  A  single 
absolute  lord  ruled  over  Japan. 

As  regards  the  cry  of  "expel  the  barbarians," 
which  had  first  given  rise  to  hostilities,  it  gradually 
died  away  as  the  revolution  continued.  The  strength 
of  the  foreign  fleets,  the  advantages  of  foreign  com- 
merce, the  conception  which  could  not  be  avoided 
that,  instead  of  being  barbarians,  these  aliens  held 
all  the  high  prizes  of  civilization  and  had  a  thousand 
important  lessons  to  teach,  caused  a  complete  change 
of  mind  among  the  intelligent  Japanese,  and  they 
quickly  began  to  welcome  those  whom  they  had 
hitherto  inveterately  opposed,  and  to  change  their 
institutions  to  accord  with  those  of  the  Western 
world. 


HOW  THE  EMPIRE  OF  CHINA 
AROSE  AND  GREW. 

FROM  the  history  of  Japan  we  now  turn  to  that 
of  China,  a  far  older  and  more  extensive  kingdom, 
so  old,  indeed,  that  it  has  now  grown  decrepit,  while 
Japan  seems  still  in  the  glow  of  vigorous  youth. 
But,  as  our  tales  will  show,  there  was  a  long  period 
in  the  past  during  which  China  was  full  of  youthful 
energy  and  activity,  and  there  may  be  a  time  in  the 
future  when  a  new  youth  will  come  to  that  hoary 
kingdom,  the  most  venerable  of  any  existing  upon 
the  face  of  the  earth. 

Who  the  Chinese  originally  were,  whence  they 
came,  how  long  they  have  dwelt  in  their  present 
realm,  are  questions  easier  to  ask  than  to  answer. 
Their  history  does  not  reach  back  to  their  origin,  ex- 
cept in  vague  and  doubtful  outlines.  The  time  was 
when  that  great  territory  known  as  China  was  the 
home  of  aboriginal  tribes,  and  the  first  historical 
sketch  given  us  of  the  Chinese  represents  them 
as  a  little  horde  of  wanderers,  destitute  of  houses, 
clothing,  and  fire,  living  on  the  spoils  of  the  chase, 
and  on  roots  and  insects  in  times  of  scarcity. 

These  people  were  not  sons  of  the  soil.  They 
came  from  some  far-off  region.  Some  think  that 
their  original  home  lay  in  the  country  to  the  south- 
east of  the  Caspian,  while  later  theorists  seek  to 
142 


HOW   THE   EMPIRE   OP   CHINA   AROSE  AND   GREW.      143 

trace  their  origin  in  Babylonia,  as  an  offshoot  of  the 
Mongolian  people  to  whom  that  land  owed  its  early 
language  and  culture.  From  some  such  place  the 
primitive  Chinese  made  their  way  by  slow  stages  to 
the  east,  probably  crossing  the  head-waters  of  the 
Oxus  and  journeying  along  the  southern  slopes  of 
the  Tian-Shan  Mountains. 

All  this  is  conjecture,  but  we  touch  firmer  soil 
when  we  trace  them  to  the  upper  course  of  the 
Hoang-ho,  or  ^Yellow  Eiver,  whose  stream  they  fol- 
lowed eastward  until  they  reached  the  fertile  plains 
of  the  district  now  known  as  Shan-se.  Here  the 
immigrants  settled  in  small  colonies,  and  put  in 
practice  those  habits  of  settled  labor  which  they 
seem  to  have  brought  with  them  from  afar.  Yet 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  they  had  at  one  time 
been  nomads,  belonging  to  the  herding  rather  than 
to  the  agricultural  races  of  the  earth.  Many  of  the 
common  words  in  their  language  are  partly  made 
up  of  the  characters  for  sheep  and  cattle,  and  the 
Chinese  house  so  resembles  the  Tartar  tent  in  out- 
line that  it  is  said  that  the  soldiers  of  Genghis  Khan, 
on  taking  a  city,  at  once  pulled  down  the  walls  of 
the  houses  and  left  the  roof  supported  by  its  wooden 
columns  as  an  excellent  substitute  for  a  tent. 

However  that  be,  the  new-comers  seem  to  have 
quickly  become  farmers,  growing  grain  for  food  and 
flax  for  their  garments.  The  culture  of  the  silk- 
worm was  early  known,  trade  was  developed,  and 
fairs  were  held.  There  was  intellectual  culture  also. 
They  knew  something  of  astronomy,  and  probably 
possessed  the  art  of  hieroglyphic  writing, — which, 


144  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

if  they  came  from  Babylonia,  they  may  well  have 
brought  with  them. 

This  took  place  five  thousand  years  or  more  ago, 
and  for  a  long  time  the  history  of  the  Chinese  was 
that  of  the  conquest  of  the  native  tribes.  They 
name  themselves  the  "  black-haired  race,"  but  their 
foes  are  classed  as  "  fiery  dogs"  in  the  north,  "  great 
bowmen"  in  the  east.  "  mounted  warriors''  in  the 
west,  and  "ungovernable  vermin"  in  the  south. 
Against  these  savages  war  was  probably  long  con- 
tinued, the  invaders  gradually  widening  their  area, 
founding  new  states,  driving  back  the  natives  into 
the  mountains  and  deserts,  and  finally  so  nearly 
annihilating  them  that  only  a  small  remnant  re- 
mained. The  descendants  of  these,  the  Meaou-tsze, 
mountain-dwellers,  still  remain  hostile  to  China,  and 
hold  their  own  in  the  mountain  strongholds  against 
its  armies. 

Such  was  the  China  with  which  history  opens. 
Ancient  Chinese  writers  amuse  themselves  with  a 
period  of  millions  of  years  in  which  venerable  dy- 
nasties reigned,  serving  to  fill  up  the  vast  gap  made 
by  their  imagination  in  the  period  before  written 
history  began.  And  when  history  does  appear  it  is 
not  easy  to  tell  how  much  of  it  is  fact  and  how 
much  fiction.  The  first  ruler  named,  Yew-chaou  She 
(the  Nest-having),  was  the  chief  who  induced  the 
wanderers  to  settle  within  the  bend  of  the  Yellow 
River  and  make  huts  of  boughs.  After  him  came 
Suy-jin  She  (the  Fire-maker),  who  discovered  the 
art  of  producing  fire  by  the  friction  of  two  pieces 
of  dry  wood,  also  how  to  count  and  register  time  by 


HOW   THE   EMPIRE   OF   CHINA   AROSE   AND    GREW.      145 

means  of  knots  tied  in  cords.  Fuh-he  discovered 
iron  by  accident,  and  reigned  one  hundred  and  fifteen 
years.  Cbin-nung  invented  the  plough,  and  in  one 
day  discovered  seventy  poisonous  plants  and  as  many 
antidotes.  Under  Hoang-ti  the  calendar  was  regu- 
lated, roads  were  constructed,  vessels  were  built, 
and  the  title  of  Ti,  or  Emperor,  was  first  assumed. 
Hoang-ti  means  "  Yellow  Emperor,"  and  became  a 
favorite  name  with  the  founders  of  later  dynasties. 
His  wife,  Se-ling-she,  was  the  first  to  unravel  silk 
from  cocoons  and  weave  it  into  cloth.  Several 
others  followed,  all  partly  or  wholly  fabulous,  until 
Yao  ascended  the  throne  in  2356  B.C.  With  this 
emperor  history  begins  to  throw  off  some  little  of 
the  mist  of  legend  and  mythology. 

With  the  reign  of  Yao  the  historical  work  of  Con- 
fucius begins.  His  narrative  is  not  trustworthy 
history,  but  it  is  not  pure  fable.  Yao  and  Shun,  his 
successor,  are  two  of  the  notable  characters  in  the 
ancient  annals  of  China.  Under  them  virtue  reigned 
supreme,  crime  was  unknown,  and  the  empire  grew 
in  extent  and  prosperity.  The  greatest  difficulty 
with  which  they  had  to  contend  was  the  overflow 
of  the  Hoang-ho,  an  unruly  stream,  which  from  that 
day  to  this  has  from  time  to  time  swept  away  its 
banks  and  drowned  its  millions.  Yu,  the  next  em- 
peror, drained  off  the  waters  of  the  mighty  flood, — 
which  some  have  thought  the  same  as  the  deluge 
of  Noah.  This  work  occupied  him  for  nine  years. 
His  last  notable  act  was  to  denounce  the  inventor 
of  an  intoxicating  drink  made  from  rice,  from  which 
he  predicted  untold  misery  to  the  people. 

10 


146  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

All  this  comes  to  us  from  the  Confucian  "  Book  of 
History,"  which  goes  on  with  questionable  stories 
of  many  later  emperors.  They  were  not  all  good 
and  wise,  like  most  of  those  named.  Some  of  the 
descendants  of  Yu  became  tyrants  and  pleasure- 
seekers,  their  palaces  the  seats  of  scenes  of  cruelty 
and  debauchery  surpassing  the  deeds  of  Nero.  Two 
emperors  in  particular,  Kee  and  Chow,  are  held  up 
as  monsters  of  wickedness  and  examples  of  disso- 
luteness beyond  comparison.  The  last,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  a  woman  named  Ta-Ke,  became  a  frightful 
example  of  sensuality  and  cruelty.  Among  the  inven- 
tions of  Ta-Ke  was  a  cylinder  of  polished  brass,  along 
which  her  victims  were  forced  to  walk  over  a  bed  of 
fire  below,  she  laughing  in  great  glee  if  they  slipped 
and  fell  into  the  flames.  In  fact,  Chinese  invention 
exhausts  itself  in  describing  the  crimes  and  immoral 
doings  of  this  abominable  pair,  which,  fortunately, 
we  are  not  obliged  to  believe. 

Of  the  later  emperors,  Mou  Wang,  who  came  to 
the  throne  about  1000  B.C.,  was  famed  as  a  builder 
of  palaces  and  public  works,  and  was  the  first  of  the 
emperors  to  come  into  conflict  with  the  Tartars  of 
the  Mongolian  plains,  who  afterwards  gave  China 
such  endless  trouble.  He  travelled  into  regions 
before  unknown,  and  brought  a  new  breed  of  horses 
into  China,  which,  fed  on  "  dragon  grass,"  were  able 
to  travel  one  thousand  li  in  a  day.  As  this  distance 
is  nearly  four  hundred  miles,  it  would  be  well  for 
modern  horsemen  if  some  of  that  dragon  grass  could 
yet  be  found. 

It  is  not  worth  while  going  on  with  the  story  of 


HOW   THE   EMPIRE   OF   CHINA   AROSE   AND   GREW.       147 

these  early  monarchs,  of  whom  all  we  know  is  so 
brief  and  unimportant  as  not  to  be  worth  the  telling, 
while  little  of  it  is  safe  to  believe.  In  the  "  burning 
of  the  books,"  which  took  place  later,  most  of  the 
ancient  history  disappeared,  while  the  "  Book  of 
History"  of  Confucius,  which  professes  to  have 
taken  from  the  earlier  books  all  that  was  worth  the 
telling,  is  too  meagre  and  unimportant  in  its  story 
to  be  of  much  value. 

Yet,  if  we  can  believe  all  we  are  told,  the  historians 
of  China  were  at  any  time  ready  to  become  martyrs 
in  the  cause  of  truth,  and  gave  the  story  of  the  dif- 
ferent reigns  with  singular  fidelity  and  intrepidity. 
Mailla  relates  the  following  incident :  "  In  the  reign 
of  the  emperor  Ling  Wang  of  the  Chow  dynasty, 
548  B.C.,  Chang  Kong,  Prince  of  Tsi,  became  enam- 
oured of  the  wife  of  Tsouichow,  a  general,  who 
resented  the  affront  and  killed  the  prince.  The 
historians  attached  to  the  household  of  the  prince 
recorded  the  facts,  and  named  Tsouichow  as  the 
murderer.  On  learning  this  the  general  caused  the 
principal  historian  to  be  arrested  and  slain,  and 
appointed  another  in  his  place.  But  as  soon  as  the 
new  historian  entered  upon  his  office  he  recorded  the 
exact  facts  of  the  whole  occurrence,  including  the 
death  of  his  predecessor  and  the  cause  of  his  death. 
Tsouichow  was  so  much  enraged  at  this  that  he 
ordered  all  the  members  of  the  Tribunal  of  History 
to  be  executed.  But  at  once  the  whole  literary  class 
in  the  principality  of  Tsi  set  to  work  exposing  and 
denouncing  the  conduct  of  Tsouichow,  who  soon 
perceived  that  his  wiser  plan  would  be  to  reconstitute 


148  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

the  Tribunal  and  to  allow  it  to  follow  its  own  de- 
vices." 

Other  stories  to  the  same  effect  are  told.  They 
are  very  likely  exaggerated,  but  there  is  good  reason 
to  believe  that  the  literary  class  of  China  were  obsti- 
nate to  the  verge  of  martyrdom  in  maintaining  the 
facts  and  traditions  of  the  past,  and  that  death  sig- 
nified to  them  less  than  dishonor.  "We  shall  see  a 
striking  instance  of  this  in  the  story  of  Hoang-ti,  the 
burner  of  the  books. 

In  the  period  to  which  we  have  now  come,  China 
was  far  from  being  the  great  empire  it  is  to-day.  On 
the  south  it  did  not  extend  beyond  the  great  river 
Yang-tsze  Kiang,  all  the  region  to  the  south  being 
still  held  by  the  native  tribes.  On  the  north  the 
Tartar  tribes  occupied  the  steppes.  At  the  fall  of 
the  Chow  dynasty,  in  255  B.C.,  the  empire  extended 
through  five  degrees  of  latitude  and  thirteen  of 
longitude,  covering  but  a  small  fraction  of  its  present 
area. 

And  of  this  region  only  a  minor  portion  could 
fairly  be  claimed  as  imperial  soil.  The  bulk  of  it 
was  held  by  feudal  princes,  whose  ancestors  had 
probably  conquered  their  domains  ages  before,  and 
some  of  whom  held  themselves  equal  to  the  em- 
peror in  power  and  pride.  They  acknowledged  but 
slight  allegiance  to  the  imperial  government,  and  for 
centuries  the  country  was  distracted  by  internal 
warfare,  until  the  great  Hoang-ti,  whose  story  we 
have  yet  to  tell,  overthrew  feudalism,  and  for  the 
first  time  united  all  China  into  a  single  empire. 

The  period   that  we   have  so   rapidly  run   over 


HOW   THE   EMPIRE   OF   CHINA  AROSE   AND    GREW.       149 

embraces  no  less  than  two  thousand  years  of  partly 
authentic  history,  and  a  thousand  or  more  years  of 
fabulous  annals,  during  which  China  steadily  grew, 
though  of  what  we  know  concerning  it  there  is  little 
in  which  any  absolute  trust  can  be  placed.  Yet  it 
was  in  this  period  that  China  made  its  greatest 
progress  in  literature  and  religious  reform,  and  that 
its  great  lawgivers  appeared.  With  this  phase  of  its 
history  we  shall  deal  in  the  succeeding  tale. 


CONFUCIUS,    THE    CHINESE 
SAGE. 

IN  the  later  years  of  the  Chow  dynasty  appeared 
the  two  greatest  thinkers  that  China  ever  produced, 
Laoutse,  the  first  and  ablest  philosopher  of  his  race, 
and  Confucius,  a  practical  thinker  and  reformer  who 
has  had  few  equals  in  the  world.  Of  Laoutse  we 
know  little.  Born  604  B.C.,  in  humble  life,  he  lived 
in  retirement,  and  when  more  than  a  hundred  years 
old  began  a  journey  to  the  west  and  vanished  from 
history.  To  the  guardian  of  the  pass  through  which 
he  sought  the  western  regions  he  gave  a  book  which 
contained  the  thoughts  of  his  life.  This  forms  the 
Bible  of  the  Taouistic  religion,  which  still  has  a  large 
following  in  China. 

Confucius,  or  Kong-foo-tse,  born  551  B.C.,  was  as 
practical  in  intellect  as  Laoutse  was  mystical,  and 
has  exerted  an  extraordinary  influence  upon  the 
Chinese  race.  For  this  reason  it  seems  important  to 
give  some  account  of  his  career. 

The  story  of  his  life  exists  in  some  detail,  and  may 
be  given  in  epitome.  As  a  child  he  was  distinguished 
for  his  respect  to  older  people,  his  gentleness,  mo- 
desty, and  quickness  of  intellect.  At  nineteen  he 
married  and  was  made  a  mandarin,  being  appointed 
superintendent  of  the  markets,  and  afterwards  placed 
in  charge  of  the  public  fields,  the  sheep  and  cattle. 
150 


CONFTJCIUS,  THE   CHINESE   SAGE.  151 

His  industry  was  remarkable,  and  so  great  were  his 
improvements  in  agriculture  that  the  whole  face  of 
the  country  changed,  and  plenty  succeeded  pov- 
erty. 

At  twenty-two  he  became  a  public  teacher,  and 
at  thirty  began  the  study  of  music,  making  such  re- 
markable progress  in  this  art  that  from  the  study 
of  one  piece  he  was  able  to  describe  the  person  of 
the  composer,  even  to  his  features  and  the  expression 
of  his  eyes.  His  teacher  now  gave  him  up.  The 
pupil  had  passed  infinitely  beyond  his  reach.  At 
the  next  important  epoch  in  the  life  of  Confucius 
(499  B.C.)  he  had  become  one  of  the  chief  ministers 
of  the  king  of  Loo.  This  potentate  fell  into  a  dis- 
pute with  the  rival  king  of  Tsi,  and  an  interview 
between  the  two  kings  took  place,  in  which  a  scheme 
of  treachery  devised  by  the  king  of  Tsi  was  baffled 
by  the  vigilance  and  courage  of  the  learned  minister 
of  Loo. 

But,  the  high  precepts  of  Confucius  proving  too 
exalted  for  the  feeble  virtue  of  his  kingly  employer, 
the  philosopher  soon  left  his  service,  and  entered 
upon  a  period  of  travel  and  study,  teaching  the 
people  as  he  went,  and  constantly  attended  by  a 
number  of  disciples.  His  mode  of  illustrating  his 
precepts  is  indicated  in  an  interesting  anecdote. 
"  As  he  was  journeying,  one  day  he  saw  a  woman 
weeping  and  wailing  by  a  grave.  Confucius  inquired 
the  cause  of  her  grief.  '  You  weep  as  if  you  had 
experienced  sorrow  upon  sorrow,'  said  one  of  the 
attendants  of  the  sage.  The  woman  answered,  'It 
is  so:  my  husband's  father  was  killed  here  by  a 


152  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

tiger,  and  my  husband  also;  and  now  my  son  has 
met  the  same  fate.'  '  Why  do  you  not  leave  the 
place  ?'  asked  Confucius.  On  her  replying,  '  There 
is  here  no  oppressive  government,'  he  turned  to  his 
disciples  and  said,  'My  children,  remember  this, — 
oppressive  government  is  more  cruel  than  a  tiger.' " 

On  another  of  their  journeys  they  ran  out  of  food 
and  one  of  the  disciples,  faint  with  hunger,  asked  the 
sage,  "  Must  the  superior  man  indeed  suffer  in  this 
way?"  " The  superior  man  may  have  to  suffer  want," 
answered  Confucius,  "  but  the  mean  man,  when  he  is 
in  want,  gives  way  to  unbridled  license."  The  last 
five  years  of  his  life  were  spent  in  Loo,  his  native 
state,  in  teaching  and  in  finishing  the  works  he  had 
long  been  writing. 

Confucius  was  no  philosopher  in  the  ordinary 
sense.  He  was  a  moral  teacher,  but  devised  no 
system  of  religion,  telling  his  disciples  that  the 
demands  of  this  world  were  quite  enough  to  engage 
the  thoughts  of  men,  and  that  the  future  might  be 
left  to  provide  for  itself.  He  cared  nothing  about 
science  and  studied  none  of  the  laws  of  nature,  but 
devoted  himself  to  the  teaching  of  the  principles  of 
conduct,  with  marked  evidence  of  wisdom  and  prac- 
tical common  sense. 

Of  all  the  great  men  who  have  lived  upon  the 
earth,  conquerors,  writers,  inventors,  and  others, 
none  have  gained  so  wide  a  renown  as  this  quiet 
Chinese  moral  teacher,  whose  fame  has  reached  the 
ears  of  more  millions  of  mankind  than  that  of  any 
other  man  who  has  ever  lived.  To-day  his  descend- 
ants form  the  only  hereditary  nobility  in  China,  with 


CONFUCIUS,  THE   CHINESE   SAGE.  153 

the  exception  of  those  of  his  great  disciple  Mencius, 
who  proved  a  worthy  successor  to  the  sage. 

It  is  to  Confucius  that  we  owe  nearly  all  we  possess 
of  the  early  literature  of  China.  Of  what  are  known 
as  the  "  Five  Classics,"  four  are  by  his  hand.  The 
"  Book  of  Changes,"  the  oldest  classic,  was  written 
by  a  mystic  named  Wan  Wang,  who  lived  about  1150 
B.C.  It  is  highly  revered,  but  no  one  pretends  to 
understand  it.  The  works  of  Confucius  include  the 
"  Book  of  History,"  the  "  Book  of  Odes,"  the  «  Book 
of  Kites,"  and  the  "  Spring  and  Autumn  Annals,"  all 
of  them  highly  esteemed  in  China  for  the  knowledge 
they  give  of  ancient  days  and  ways. 

The  records  of  the  early  dynasties  kept  at  the 
imperial  court  were  closely  studied  by  Confucius, 
who  selected  from  them  all  that  he  thought  worth 
preserving.  This  he  compiled  into  the  Shoo  King,  or 
"  Book  of  History."  The  contents  of  this  work  we" 
have  condensed  in  the  preceding  tale.  It  consists 
mainly  of  conversations  between  the  kings  and  their 
ministers,  in  which  the  principles  of  the  patriarchal 
Chinese  government  form  the  leading  theme.  "Do 
not  be  ashamed  of  mistakes,  and  thus  make  them 
crimes,"  says  one  of  these  practical  ministers. 

The  Le-ke,  or  "  Book  of  Rites,"  compiled  from  a 
very  ancient  work,  lays  down  exact  rules  of  life  for 
Chinamen,  which  are  still  minutely  obeyed.  The 
Chun  Tsew,  or  "  Spring  and  Autumn  Annals,"  em- 
braces a  mere  statement  of  events  which  occurred 
in  the  kingdom  of  Loo,  and  contains  very  little  of 
historical  and  less  of  any  other  value.  The  "  Book 
of  Odes,"  on  the  contrary,  possesses  a  great  literary 


154  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

value,  in  preserving  for  us  the  poetic  remains  of 
ancient  China. 

Literature  in  that  country,  as  elsewhere,  seems  to 
have  begun  with  poetry,  and  of  the  song.s  and  bal- 
lads of  the  early  period  official  collections  of  con- 
siderable value  were  made.  Not  only  at  the  impe- 
rial court,  but  at  those  of  the  feudal  lords,  there 
were  literati  whose  duty  it  was  to  collect  the  songs 
of  the  people  and  diligently  to  preserve  the  histori- 
cal records  of  the  empire.  From  the  latter  Con- 
fucius compiled  two  of  the  books  already  named. 
There  also  fell  into  his  hands  an  official  collection  of 
poems  containing  some  three  thousand  pieces.  These 
the  sage  carefully  edited,  selecting  such  of  them  as 
"would  be  serviceable  for  the  inculcation  of  pro- 
priety and  righteousness."  These  poems,  three  hun- 
dred and  eleven  in  number,  constitute  the  She  King, 
or  "Book  of  Odes,"  forming  a  remarkable  collec- 
tion of  primitive  verses  which  breathe  the  spirit  of 
peace  and  simple  life,  broken  by  few  sounds  of  war 
or  revelry,  but  yielding  many  traces  of  family  affec- 
tion, peaceful  repose,  and  religious  feeling. 

These  are  not  the  only  remains  of  the  ancient  Chi- 
nese literature.  There  are  four  more  books,  which, 
with  the  five  named,  make  up  the  "  Nine  Classics." 
These  were  written  by  the  pupils  and  disciples  of 
Confucius,  the  most  important  being  the  Mang  tsze, 
or  "  Works  of  Mencius."  They  are  records  of  the 
sayings  and  doings  of  the  two  sages  Confucius  and 
Mencius,  whose  remarkable  precepts,  like  those  of 
the  Greek  sage  Socrates,  would  have  been  lost  to  the 
world  but  for  the  loving  diligence  of  their  disciples. 


CONFUCIUS,  THE   CHINESE   SAGE.  155 

All  this  is  not  history  in  the  ordinary  sense.  But 
the  men  described,  and  particularly  Confucius,  have 
had  so  potent  an  influence  upon  all  that  relates  to 
Chinese  life  and  history,  that  some  brief  account  of 
them  and  their  doings  seemed  indispensable  to  our 
work. 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  THE  CHINESE 
EMPIRE. 

IN  the  year  246  B.C.  came  to  the  throne  of  China 
the  most  famous  of  all  the  monarchs  of  that  ancient 
empire,  the  celebrated  Hoangti, — Tsin  Chi  Hoang-ti, 
or  "  first  sovereign  emperor  of  the  Tsins,"  to  give 
him  his  full  title.  Various  stories  are  told  by  Chinese 
historians  of  the  origin  of  this  great  monarch,  they 
denying  that  he  was  of  royal  blood.  They  say  that 
he  was  the  son  of  a  woman  slave  who  had  been 
bought  by  the  emperor,  and  that  the  boy's  real  father 
was  a  merchant,  her  former  master.  This  story, 
whether  true  or  false,  gave  the  young  emperor  much 
trouble  in  later  years.  His  mother,  after  he  came  to 
the  throne,  grew  so  dissipated  that  he  was  forced  to 
punish  her  lover  and  banish  her.  And  the  merchant, 
his  reputed  father,  being  given  a  place  at  court,  be- 
came eager  for  a  higher  position,  and  sought  to  in- 
fluence the  emperor  by  hints  and  whisperings  of  the 
secret  hold  he  possessed  over  him.  Hoangti  was  not 
the  man  to  be  dealt  with  in  such  a  fashion,  and  the 
intriguing  merchant,  finding  a  storm  of  vengeance 
coming,  poisoned  himself  to  escape  a  worse  fate. 

Such  are  the  stories  told  of  the  origin  of  the  famous 

emperor.     They  may  not  be  true,  for  the  historians 

hated  him,  for  reasons  yet  to  be  given,  and  made  the 

most  of  anything  they  could  say  against  him.     All 

166 


THE    FOUNDER   OF   THE   CHINESE   EMPIRE.         157 

we  are  sure  of  is  that  he  ascended  the  throne  at 
the  youthful  age  of  thirteen,  and  even  at  that  age 
quickly  made  his  influence  widely  felt.  What  lay 
before  him  was  practically  the  conquest  of  China, 
•ivhose  great  feudal  lords  were  virtually  independent 
of  the  throne,  and  had,  not  long  before,  overwhelmed 
tbe  imperial  armies. 

Fortunately  for  the  young  emperor,  the  great 
princes,  having  no  fear  of  a  boy,  either  disbanded 
their  forces  or  quarrelled  among  themselves,  two 
of  tho  most  powerful  of  them  declaring  war  upon 
each  othor.  Taking  advantage  of  these  dissensions, 
Hoangti  gained,  step  by  step,  the  desired  control 
of  his  foes.  Ouki,  a  great  general  in  the  interest 
of  the  princes,  was  disgraced  by  the  aid  of  bribery 
and  falsehood,  several  of  the  strong  cities  of  the 
princes  were  seized,  and  when  they  entered  the  field 
against  the  emperor  their  armies,  no  longer  led  by 
the  able  Ouki,  were  easily  defeated.  Thus  steadily 
the  power  of  the  youthful  monarch  increased  and 
that  of  his  opponents  fell  away,  the  dismembered 
empire  of  China  slowly  growing  under  his  rule  into 
a  coherent  whole. 

Meanwhile  war  arose  with  foreign  enemies,  who 
appeared  on  the  western  and  northern  boundaries 
of  the  empire.  In  this  quarter  the  Tartar  tribes  of 
the  desert  had  long  been  troublesome,  and  now  a 
great  combination  of  these  warlike  nomads,  known 
as  the  Heung-nou, — perhaps  the  same  as  the  Huns 
who  afterwards  devastated  Europe, — broke  into  the 
defenceless  border  provinces,  plundering  and  slaugh- 
tering wherever  they  appeared.  Against  this  danger- 


158  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

ous  enemy  the  emperor  manifested  the  sarne  energy 
that  he  had  done  against  his  domestic  foes.  Collect- 
ing a  great  army,  three  hundred  thousand  strong,  he 
marched  into  their  country  and  overthrew  them  in  a 
series  of  signal  victories.  In  the  end  those  in  the 
vicinity  of  China  were  exterminated,  and  the  others 
driven  to  take  refuge  in  the  mountains  of  Mongolia. 

This  success  was  followed  by  a  remarkable  per- 
formance, one  of  the  most  stupendous  in  the  history 
of  the  world.  Finding  that  several  of  the  northern 
states  of  the  empire  were  building  lines  of  fortifi- 
cation along  their  northern  frontiers  for  defence 
against  their  Tartar  enemies,  the  emperor  conceived 
the  extraordinary  project  of  building  a  gigantic  wall 
along  the  whole  northern  boundary  of  China,  a  great 
bulwark  to  extend  from  the  ocean  on  the  east  to 
the  interior  extremity  of  the  modern  province  of 
Kan-suh  on  the  west.  This  work  was  begun  under 
the  direct  supervision  of  the  emperor  in  214  B.C.,  and 
prosecuted  with  the  sleepless  energy  for  which  he 
had  made  himself  famous.  Tireless  as  he  was,  how- 
ever, the  task  was  too  great  for  one  man  to  perform, 
and  it  was  not  completed  until  after  his  death. 

This  extraordinary  work,  perhaps  the  greatest 
ever  undertaken  by  the  hand  of  man,  extends  over  a 
length  of  twelve  hundred  and  fifty-five  miles,  the  wall 
itself,  if  measured  throughout  its  sinuous  extent,  be- 
ing fully  fifteen  hundred  miles  in  length.  Over  this 
vast  reach  of  mountain  and  plain  it  is  carried,  regard- 
less of  hill  or  vale,  but  "  scaling  the  precipices  and 
topping  the  craggy  hills  of  the  country."  It  is  not  a 
solid  mass,  but  is  composed  of  two  re  tain  ing  walls  of 


THE   FOUNDER   OP   THE   CHINESE   EMPIRE.         159 

brick,  built  upon  granite  foundations,  while  the  space 
between  them  is  filled  with  earth  and  stones.  It  is 
about  twenty-five  feet  wide  at  base  and  fifteen  at 
top,  and  varies  from  fifteen  to  thirty  feet  in  height, 
with  frequent  towers  rising  above  its  general  level. 
At  the  top  a  pavement  of  bricks — now  overgrown 
with  grass — forms  a  surface  finish  to  the  work. 

How  many  thousands  or  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  the  industrious  laborers  of  China  spent  their  lives 
upon  this  stupendous  work  history  does  not  tell.  It 
stands  as  a  striking  monument  of  the  magnificent 
conceptions  of  Hoangti,  and  of  the  patient  industry 
of  his  subjects,  beside  which  the  building  of  the 
great  pyramid  of  Egypt  sinks  into  insignificance. 
Yet,  as  history  has  abundantly  proved,  it  was  a 
waste  of  labor  so  far  as  answering  its  purpose  was 
concerned.  In  the  hands  of  a  strong  emperor  like 
Hoangti  it  might  well  defy  the  Tartar  foe.  In  the 
hands  of  many  of  his  weak  successors  it  proved  of 
no  avail,  the  hordes  of  the  desert  swarming  like 
ants  over  its  undefended  reaches,  and  pouring  upon 
the  feeble  country  that  sought  defence  in  walls,  not 
in  men. 

While  this  vast  building  operation  was  going  on, 
Hoangti  had  his  hands  so  full  with  internal  wars 
that  he  adopted  the  custom  of  sitting  on  his  throne 
with  a  naked  sword  in  his  hand,  significant  of  his 
unceasing  alertness  against  his  foes.  Not  until  his 
reign  was  near  its  end  was  he  able  to  return  this 
emblem  of  war  to  its  scabbard  and  enjoy  for  a  few 
years  the  peace  he  had  so  ably  won. 

No  sooner  had  the  great  emperor  finished  his 


160  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

campaign  of  victory  against  the  Heung-nou  Tartars 
than  he  found  himself  confronted  by  enemies  at  home, 
the  adherents  of  the  remaining  feudal  princes  whose 
independent  power  was  threatened.  The  first  with 
whom  he  came  in  contact  was  the  powerful  prince 
of  Chow,  several  of  whose  cities  he  captured,  the 
neighboring  prince  of  Han  being  BO  terrified  by  this 
success  that  he  surrendered  without  a  contest.  In 
accordance  with  Hoangti's  method,  the  prince  was 
forced  to  yield  his  power  and  retire  to  private  life 
in  the  dominions  of  the  conqueror. 

Chow  still  held  out,  under  an  able  general,  Limou, 
who  defied  the  emperor  and  defeated  his  armies. 
Hoangti,  finding  himself  opposed  by  an  abler  man 
than  any  he  had  under  his  command,  employed 
against  him  the  same  secret  arts  by  which  he  had 
before  disposed  of  the  valiant  Ouki.  A  courtier  was 
bribed  to  malign  the  absent  general  and  poison  the 
mind  of  the  prince  against  the  faithful  commander 
of  his  forces.  The  intrigue  was  successful,  Limou 
was  recalled  from  his  command,  and  on  his  refusing 
to  obey  was  assassinated  by  order  of  the  prince. 

Hoangti  had  gained  his  end,  and  his  adversary 
soon  paid  dearly  for  his  lack  of  wisdom  and  justice. 
His  dominions  were  overrun,  his  capital,  Hantan, 
was  taken  and  sacked,  and  he  and  his  family  became 
prisoners  to  one  who  was  not  noted  for  mercy  to 
his  foes.  The  large  province  of  Chow  was  added  to 
the  empire,  which  was  now  growing  with  surprising 
rapidity. 

This  enemy  disposed  of,  Hoangti  had  another  with 
whom  to  deal.  At  his  court  resided  Prince  Tan,  heir 


THE   FOUNDER   OP  THE   CHINESE   EMPIRE.          161 

of  the  ruler  of  Yen.  "Whether  out  of  settled  policy 
or  from  whim,  the  emperor  insulted  this  visitor  so 
flagrantly  that  he  fled  the  court,  burning  for  revenge. 
As  the  most  direct  way  of  obtaining  this,  he  hired 
an  assassin  to  murder  Hoangti,  inducing  him  to 
accept  the  task  by  promising  him  the  title  of  "Lib- 
erator of  the  Empire."  The  plot  was  nearly  success- 
ful. Finding  it  very  difficult  to  obtain  an  audience 
with  the  empei'or,  Kinkou,  the  assassin,  succeeded 
in  an  extraordinary  way,  by  inducing  Fanyuki,  a 
proscribed  rebel,  to  commit  suicide.  In  some  unex- 
plained way  Kinkou  made  use  of  this  desperate  act 
to  obtain  the  desired  audience.  Only  the  alertness 
of  the  emperor  now  saved  him  from  death.  His 
quick  eye  caught  the  attempt  of  the  assassin  to  draw 
his  poniard,  and  at  once,  with  a  sweeping  blow  of 
his  sabre,  he  severed  his  leg  from  his  body,  hurling 
him  bleeding  and  helpless  to  the  floor. 

Hoangti's  retribution  did  not  end  with  the  death 
of  the  assassin.  Learning  that  Prince  Tan  was  the 
real  culprit,  he  gave  orders  for  the  instant  invasion 
of  Yen, — a  purpose  which  perhaps  he  had  in  view 
in  his  insult  to  the  prince.  The  ruler  of  that  state, 
to  avert  the  emperor's  wrath,  sent  him  the  head  of 
Tan,  whom  he  had  ordered  to  execution.  But  as 
the  army  continued  to  advance,  he  fled  into  the  wilds 
of  Lea-vu-tung,  abandoning  his  territory  to  the  in- 
vader. In  the  same  year  the  kingdom  of  Wei  was 
invaded,  its  capital  taken,  and  its  ruler  sent  to  the 
Chinese  capital  for  execution. 

Only  one  of  the  great  principalities  now  remained, 
that  of  Choo,  but  it  was  more  formidable  than  any 

11 


162  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

of  those  yet  assailed.  Great  preparations  and  a 
large  army  were  needed  for  this  enterprise,  and  the 
emperor  asked  his  generals  how  many  men  would  be 
required  for  the  task  of  conquest. 

"Two  hundred  thousand  will  be  abundant,"  said 
Lisin  ;  "  I  will  promise  you  the  best  results  with  that 
number  of  men." 

"  What  have  you  to  say  ?"  asked  the  emperor  of 
Wang  Tsein,  his  oldest  and  most  experienced  com- 
mander. 

"  Six  hundred  thousand  will  be  needed,"  said  the 
cautious  old  general. 

These  figures,  given  in  history,  may  safely  be  cred- 
ited with  an  allowance  for  the  exaggeration  of  the 
writers. 

The  emperor  approved  of  Lisin's  estimate,  and 
gave  him  the  command,  dismissing  the  older  war- 
rior as  an  over-cautious  dotard.  The  event  told  a 
different  tale.  Lisin  was  surprised  during  his  march 
and  driven  back  in  utter  defeat,  losing  forty  thousand 
men,  as  the  records  say,  in  the  battle  and  the  pur- 
suit. What  became  of  the  defeated  braggart  history 
fails  to  state.  If  he  survived  the  battle,  he  could 
hardly  have  dared  to  present  himself  again  before  his 
furious  master. 

Hoangti  now  sent  for  the  veteran  whom  he  had 
dismissed  as  a  dotard,  and  asked  him  to  take  com- 
mand of  the  troops. 

"  Six  hundred  thousand :  no  less  will  serve,"  re- 
peated the  old  man. 

"  You  shall  have  all  you  ask  for,"  answered  the 
emperor. 


THE    FOUNDER   OP   THE   CHINESE   EMPIRE.          163 

This  vast  host  collected,  the  question  of  supplies 
presented  itself  as  a  serious  matter. 

"  Do  not  let  that  trouble  you,"  said  the  emperor 
to  his  general.  "  I  have  taken  steps  to  provide 
for  that,  and  promise  you  that  provisions  are  more 
likely  to  be  wanting  in  my  palace  than  in  your 
camp." 

The  event  proved  the  soundness  of  the  old  war- 
rior's judgment  and  his  warlike  skill.  A  great  bat- 
tle soon  took  place,  in  which  Wang  Tsein,  taking 
advantage  of  a  false  movement  of  the  enem}7,  drove 
him  in  panic  flight  from  the  field.  This  was  soon 
followed  by  the  complete  conquest  of  the  princi- 
pality, whose  cities  were  strongly  garrisoned  by  im- 
perial troops,  and  its  rulers  sent  to  the  capital  to 
experience  the  fate  of  the  preceding  princely  cap- 
tives. The  subjection  of  several  smaller  provinces 
succeeded,  and  the  conquest  of  China  was  at  length 
complete. 

The  feudal  principalities,  which  had  been  the  suc- 
cessors of  the  independent  kingdoms  into  which  the 
Chinese  territory  was  originally  divided,  were  thus 
overthrown,  the  ancient  local  dynasties  being  exter- 
minated, and  their  territories  added  to  the  dominion 
of  the  Tsins.  The  unity  of  the  empire  was  at 
length  established,  and  the  great  conqueror  became 
"  the  first  universal  emperor." 

Hoangti  the  Great,  as  we  may  justly  designate  the 
man  who  first  formed  a  united  Chinese  empire,  and 
to  whom  the  mighty  conception  of  the  Great  Wall 
was  due,  did  not  exhaust  his  energies  in  these  varied 
labors.  Choosing  as  his  capital  Heenyang  (now  Se- 


164  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

gan  Foo),  he  built  himself  there  a  palace  of  such 
magnificence  as  to  make  it  the  wonder  and  admira- 
tion of  the  age.  This  was  erected  outside  the  city, 
on  so  vast  a  scale  that  ten  thousand  men  could  be 
drawn  up  in  order  of  battle  in  one  of  its  courts. 
Attached  to  it  were  magnificent  gardens,  the  whole 
being  known  as  the  Palace  of  Delight.  Within  the 
city  he  had  another  palace,  of  grand  dimensions,  its 
hall  of  audience  being  adorned  with  twelve  gigantic 
statues  made  from  the  spoils  of  his  many  campaigns, 
each  of  them  weighing  twelve  thousand  pounds. 

The  capital  was  otherwise  highly  embellished,  and 
an  edict  required  that  all  weapons  should  be  sent 
to  the  arsenal  in  that  city,  there  being  no  longer 
danger  of  civil  war,  and  "  peace  being  universal." 
This  measure  certainly  tended  to  prevent  war,  and 
"  the  skilful  disarming  of  the  provinces  added  daily 
to  the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  the  capital." 

The  empire  of  China  thus  being,  for  the  first  time 
in  its  history,  made  a  centralized  one,  Hoangti  di- 
vided it  into  thirty-six  provinces,  and  set  out  on  a 
tour  of  inspection  of  the  vast  dominions  which  ac- 
knowledged him  as  sole  lord  and  master.  Governors 
and  sub-governors  were  appointed  in  each  province, 
the  stability  of  the  organization  adopted  being  evi- 
denced by  the  fact  that  it  still  exists.  The  most 
important  result  of  the  imperial  journey  was  the 
general  improvement  of  the  roads  of  the  empire. 
It  was  the  custom,  when  a  great  man  visited  any 
district,  to  repair  the  roads  which  he  would  need  10 
traverse,  while  outside  his  line  of  march  the  high- 
ways were  of  a  very  imperfect  character.  Hoangti 


THE   FOUNDER   OP   THE   CHINESE   EMPIRE.         165 

was  well  aware  of  this  custom,  and  very  likely  he 
may  have  convinced  himself  of  the  true  condition 
of  the  roads  by  sudden  detours  from  the  prescribed 
route.  At  all  events,  he  made  the  following  notable 
remarks : 

"  These  roads  have  been  made  expressly  for  me, 
and  are  very  satisfactory.  But  it  is  not  just  that 
I  alone  should  enjoy  a  convenience  of  which  my 
subjects  have  still  greater  need,  and  one  which  I 
can  give  them.  Therefore  I  decree  that  good  roads 
shall  be  made  in  all  directions  throughout  the  em- 
pire." 

In  these  few  words  he  set  in  train  a  far  more  use- 
ful work  than  the  Great  Wall.  High-roads  were  laid 
out  on  a  grand  scale,  traversing  the  empire  from  end 
to  end,  and  the  public  spirit  of  the  great  emperor  is 
attested  by  the  noble  system  of  highways  which 
still  remain,  more  than  two  thousand  years  after  his 
death. 

Having  said  so  much  in  favor  of  Hoangti,  we 
have  now  to  show  the  reverse  of  the  shield,  in  de- 
scribing that  notable  act  which  has  won  him  the 
enmity  of  the  literary  class,  not  only  in  China  but 
in  the  whole  world.  This  was  the  celebrated  "  burn- 
ing of  the  books."  Hoangti  was  essentially  a  re- 
former. Time-honored  ceremonies  were  of  little  im- 
portance in  his  eyes  when  they  stood  in  the  way  of 
the  direct  and  practical,  and  he  abolished  hosts  of 
ancient  customs  that  had  grown  wearisome  and  un- 
meaning. This  sweeping  away  of  the  drift-wood  of 
the  past  was  far  from  agreeable  to  the  officials,  to 
whom  formalism  and  precedent  were  as  the  breath 


166  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

of  life.  One  of  the  ancient  customs  required  the  em- 
perors to  ascend  high  mountains  and  offer  sacrifices 
on  their  summits.  The  literary  class  had  ancient 
rule  and  precedent  for  every  step  in  this  ceremony, 
and  so  sharply  criticised  the  emperor's  disregard  of 
these  observances  that  they  roused  his  anger.  "  You 
vaunt  the  simplicity  of  the  ancients,"  he  impatiently 
said ;  "  you  should  then  be  satisfied  with  me,  for  I 
act  in  a  simpler  fashion  than  they  did."  Finally 
he  closed  the  controversy  with  the  stern  remark, 
"  When  I  have  need  of  you  I  will  let  you  know  my 
orders." 

The  literati  of  China  have  always  been  notable 
for  the  strength  of  their  convictions  and  the  obsti- 
nate courage  with  which  they  express  their  opinions 
at  all  risks.  They  were  silenced  for  the  present,  but 
their  anger,  as  well  as  that  of  the  emperor,  only 
slumbered.  Five  years  afterwards  it  was  reawak- 
ened. Hoangti  had  summoned  to  the  capital  all  the 
governors  and  high  officials  for  a  Grand  Council  of 
the  Empire.  With  the  men  of  affairs  came  the  men 
of  learning,  many  of  them  wedded  to  theories  and 
traditions,  who  looked  upon  Hoangti  as  a  danger- 
ous iconoclast,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  express  their 
opinion. 

It  was  the  most  distinguished  assembly  that  had 
ever  come  together  in  China,  and,  gathered  in  that 
magnificent  palace  which  was  adorned  with  the 
spoils  of  conquered  kingdoms,  it  reflected  the  highest 
honor  on  the  great  emperor  who  had  called  it  to- 
gether and  who  presided  over  its  deliberations.  But 
the  hardly  concealed  hostility  of  the  literati  soon 


THE   FOUNDER   OF   THE   CHINESE   EMPIRE.         167 

disturbed  the  harmony  of  the  council.  In  response 
to  the  emperor,  who  asked  for  candid  expressions 
of  opinion  upon  his  government  and  legislation,  a 
courtier  arose  with  words  of  high  praise,  ending 
with,  "  Truly  you  have  surpassed  the  very  greatest 
of  your  predecessors  even  at  the  most  remote  period." 

The  men  of  books  broke  into  loud  murmurs  at  this 
insult  to  the  heroes  of  their  admiration,  and  one  of 
them  sprang  angrily  to  his  feet,  designating  the 
former  speaker  as  "  a  vile  flatterer  unworthy  of  the 
high  position  which  he  occupied,"  and  continuing 
with  unstinted  praise  of  the  early  rulers.  His 
oration,  which  showed  much  more  erudition  than 
discretion,  ended  by  advocating  a  reversal  of  the 
emperor's  action,  and  a  redivision  of  the  empire  into 
feudal  principalities. 

Hoangti,  hot  with  anger,  curtly  reminded  the 
speaker  that  that  point  was  not  open  to  discussion, 
it  having  already  been  considered  and  decided.  He 
then  called  on  Lisseh,  his  minister,  to  state  again  the 
reasons  for  the  unity  of  the  empire.  The  speech  of 
the  minister  is  one  of  high  importance,  as  giving  the 
ostensible  reasons  for  the  unexampled  act  of  de- 
struction by  which  it  was  followed. 

"  It  must  be  admitted,"  he  said,  "  after  what  we 
have  just  heard,  that  men  of  letters  are,  as  a  rule, 
very  little  acquainted  with  what  concerns  the  gov- 
ernment of  a  country, — not  that  government  of  pure 
speculation,  which  is  nothing  more  than  a  phantom, 
vanishing  the  nearer  we  approach  to  it,  but  the 
practical  government  which  consists  in  keeping  men 
within  the  sphere  of  their  practical  duties.  With 


168  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

all  their  pretence  of  knowledge,  they  are,  in  this 
matter,  densely  ignorant.  They  can  tell  you  by 
heart  everything  which  has  happened  in  the  past, 
back  to  the  most  remote  period,  but  they  are,  or 
seem  to  be,  ignorant  of  what  is  being  done  in  these 
later  days,  of  what  is  passing  under  their  very  eyes. 
Incapable  of  discerning  that  the  thing  which  was 
formerly  suitable  would  be  wholly  out  of  place  to- 
day, they  would  have  everything  arranged  in  exact 
imitation  of  what  they  find  written  in  their  books." 

He  went  on  to  denounce  the  men  of  learning  as  a 
class  uninfluenced  by  the  spirit  of  existing  affairs 
and  as  enemies  of  the  public  weal,  and  concluded 
by  saying,  "Now  or  never  is  the  time  to  close  the 
mouths  of  these  secret  enemies,  to  place  a  curb  upon 
their  audacity." 

He  spoke  the  sentiments  of  the  emperor,  who  had 
probably  already  determined  upon  his  course  of 
action.  Having  no  regard  for  books  himself,  and 
looking  upon  them  as  the  weapons  of  his  banded 
foes,  he  issued  the  memorable  order  that  all  the  books 
of  the  empire  should  be  destroyed,  making  exception 
only  of  those  that  treated  of  medicine,  agriculture, 
architecture,  and  astronomy.  The  order  included 
the  works  of  the  great  Confucius,  who  had  edited 
and  condensed  the  more  ancient  books  of  the  em- 
pire, and  of  his  noble  disciple  Mencius,  and  was  of 
the  most  tyrannical  and  oppressive  character.  All 
books  containing  historical  records,  except  those  re- 
lating to  the  existing  reign,  were  to  be  burned,  and 
all  who  dared  even  to  speak  together  about  the 
Confucian  "  Book  of  Odes"  and  "  Book  of  History" 


THE   FOUNDER  OP   THE   CHINESE   EMPIRE.          169 

were  condemned  to  execution.  All  who  should 
even  make  mention  of  the  past,  so  as  to  blame  the 
present,  were,  with  all  their  relatives,  to  be  put  to 
death ;  and  any  one  found,  after  thirty  days,  with  a 
book  in  his  possession  was  to  be  branded  and  sent 
to  work  for  four  years  on  the  Great  Wall.  Hoangti 
did  not  confine  himself  to  words.  The  whole  empire 
was  searched  for  books,  and  all  found  were  burned, 
while  large  numbers  of  the  literati  who  had  dis- 
obeyed the  edict  were  arrested,  and  four  hundred  and 
sixty  of  them  were  buried  alive  in  a  great  pit  dug  for 
that  purpose. 

It  may  well  be  that  Hoangti  had  his  own  fame 
largely  in  view  in  this  unprecedented  act,  as  in  his 
preceding  wall-building  and  road-making.  He  may 
have  proposed  to  sweep  away  all  earlier  records  of 
the  empire  and  make  it  seem  to  have  sprung  into 
existence  full-fledged  with  his  reign.  But  if  he  had 
such  a  purpose,  he  did  not  take  fully  into  account 
the  devotion  of  men  of  learning  to  their  cherished 
manuscripts,  nor  the  powers  of  the  human  memory. 
Books  were  hidden  in  the  roofs  and  walls  of  dwell- 
ings, buried  underground,  and  in  some  cases  even 
concealed  in  the  beds  of  rivers,  until  after  the 
tyrant's  death.  And  when  a  subsequent  monarch 
sought  to  restore  these  records  of  the  past,  van- 
ished tomes  reappeared  from  the  most  unlooked-for 
places.  As  for  the  "  Book  of  History"  of  Confucius, 
which  had  disappeared,  twenty-eight  sections  of  the 
hundred  composing  it  were  taken  down  from  the 
lips  of  an  aged  blind  man  who  had  treasured  them 
in  his  memory,  and  one  was  obtained  from  a  young 


170  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

girl.  The  others  were  lost  until  140  B.C.,  when,  in 
pulling  down  the  house  of  the  great  philosopher,  a 
complete  copy  of  the  work  was  found  hidden  in  its 
walls.  As  for  the  scientific  works  that  were  spared, 
none  of  them  have  come  down  to  our  day. 

"We  shall  now  briefly  complete  our  story  of  the 
man  who  made  himself  the  most  thoroughly  hated 
of  all  Chinese  monarchs  by  the  literati  of  that 
realm.  Organizing  his  troops  into  a  strong  standing 
army,  he  engaged  in  a  war  of  conquest  in  the  south, 
adding  Tonquin  and  Cochin  China  to  his  dominions, 
and  carrying  his  arms  as  far  as  Bengal.  In  the 
north  he  again  sent  his  armies  into  the  desert  to 
chastise  the  troublesome  nomads,  and  then,  conceiv- 
ing that  no  advantage  was  to  be  gained  in  extending 
his  empire  over  these  domains  of  barbarism,  he  em- 
ployed the  soldiers  as  aids  in  the  task  of  building  the 
Great  Wall,  adding  to  them  a  host  of  the  industrial 
population  of  the  north. 

In  210  B.C.  Hoangti  was  seized  with  some  malady 
which  he  failed  to  treat  as  he  did  his  enemies.  Neg- 
lecting the  simplest  remedial  measures,  he  came 
suddenly  to  the  end  of  his  career  after  a  reign  of 
fifty-one  years.  With  him  were  buried  many  of  his 
wives  and  large  quantities  of  treasure,  a  custom  of 
barbarous  origin  which  was  confined  in  China  to  the 
chiefs  of  Tsin.  Magnificent  in  his  ideas  and  fond  of 
splendor,  he  despised  formality,  lived  simply  in  the 
midst  of  luxury,  and  distinguished  himself  from 
other  Chinese  rulers  by  making  walking  his  favorite 
exercise.  While  not  great  as  a  soldier,  he  knew  how 
to  choose  soldiers,  and  in  his  administration  was 


THE   FOUNDER   OF   THE   CHINESE   EMPIRE.          171 

wise  enough  to  avail  himself  of  the  advice  of  the 
ablest  ministers. 

Yet  with  all  his  greatness  he  could  not  provide  for 
the  birth  of  a  great  son.  Upon  his  death  disturb- 
ances broke  out  in  all  quarters  of  the  realm,  with 
which  his  weak  successor  was  unable  to  cope.  In 
three  years  the  reign  of  his  son  was  closed  with  as- 
sassination, while  the  grandson  of  Hoangti,  defeated 
in  battle  after  a  six  weeks'  nominal  reign,  ended  his 
life  in  murder  or  suicide.  With  him  the  dynasty  of 
the  Tsins  passed  away  and  that  of  the  Han  mon- 
archs  succeeded.  Hoangti  stands  alone  as  the  great 
man  of  his  race. 


KAOTSOU  AND  THE  DYNASTY 
OF  THE  HANS. 

AFTER  the  death  of  the  great  Hoangti,  two  of  his 
generals  fought  for  the  throne  of  China, — Lieou 
Pang,  who  represents,  in  the  Chinese  annals,  intel- 
lect, and  Pa  Wang,  representing  brute  force,  unin- 
spired by  thought.  Destiny,  if  we  can  credit  the 
following  tale,  had  chosen  the  former  for  the  throne. 
"  A  noted  physiognomist  once  met  him  on  the  high- 
road, and,  throwing  himself  down  before  him,  said, 
'  I  see  by  the  expression  of  your  features  that  you 
are  destined  to  be  emperor,  and  I  offer  you  in  antici- 
pation the  tribute  of  respect  that  a  subject  owes  his 
sovereign.  I  have  a  daughter,  the  fairest  and  wisest 
in  the  empire ;  take  her  as  your  wife.  So  confident 
am  I  that  my  prediction  will  be  realized  that  I  gladly 
offer  her  to  you.'  " 

However  that  be,  the  weak  descendants  of  Hoangti 
soon  vanished  from  the  scene,  Pa  Wang  was  over- 
come in  battle,  and  the  successful  general  seized  the 
imperial  throne.  He  chose,  as  emperor,  the  title  of 
Kaotsou,  and  named  his  dynasty,  from  his  native 
province,  the  Han.  It  was  destined  to  continue  for 
centuries  in  power. 

The  new  emperor  showed  himself  a  worthy  suc- 
cessor of  the  builder  of  the  Great  Wall,  while  he 
made  every  effort  to  restore  to  the  nation  its  books, 
172 


KAOTSOU   AND   THE   DYNASTY   OF   THE   HANS.      173 

encouraging  men  of  letters  and  seeking  to  recover 
such  literature  as  had  sui-vived  the  great  burning. 
In  this  way  he  provided  for  his  future  fame  at  the 
hands  of  the  grateful  literati  of  China.  Amnesty 
to  all  who  had  opposed  him  was  proclaimed,  and  re- 
gret expressed  at  the  sufferings  of  the  people  "  from 
the  evils  which  follow  in  the  train  of  war." 

The  merit  of  Kaotsou  lay  largely  in  the  great 
public  works  with  which  he  emulated  the  policy  of 
his  energetic  predecessor.  The  "Lofty  and  August 
Emperor"  (Kao  Hoangtt),  as  he  entitled  himself,  did 
not  propose  to  be  thrown  into  the  shade  by  any  who 
had  gone  before.  On  taking  the  throne  he  chose  as 
his  capital  the  city  of  Loyang  (now  Honan),  but 
subsequently  selected  the  city  of  Singanfoo,  in  the 
western  province  of  Shensi.  This  city  lay  in  a  nest 
of  mountains,  which  made  it  very  difficult  of  ap- 
proach. It  was  not  without  advantages  from  its 
situation  as  the  capital  of  the  empire,  but  could  not 
be  reached  from  the  south  without  long  detours. 
Possibly  this  difficulty  may  have  had  something  to 
do  with  its  choice  by  the  emperor,  that  he  might 
display  his  genius  in  overcoming  obstacles. 

To  construct  roads  across  and  to  cut  avenues 
through  the  mountains  an  army  of  workmen,  one 
hundred  thousand  in  number,  became  necessary. 
The  deep  intervening  valleys  were  filled  up  to  the 
necessary  level  by  the  spoils  rent  from  the  lofty  ad- 
joining mountains,  and  where  this  could  not  be  done, 
great  bridges,  supported  on  strong  and  high  pillars, 
were  thrown  across  from  side  to  side.  Elsewhere 
suspension  bridges — "  flying  bridges,"  as  the  Chinese 


174  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

call  them — were  thrown  across  deep  and  rugged 
ravines,  wide  enough  for  four  horsemen  to  travel 
abreast,  their  sides  being  protected  by  high  balus- 
trades. One  of  these,  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards 
long,  and  thrown  over  a  valley  more  than  five 
hundred  feet  deep,  is  said  to  be  still  in  perfect  con- 
dition. These  suspension  bridges  were  built  nearly 
two  thousand  years  before  a  work  of  this  character 
was  attempted  in  Europe.  In  truth,  the  period  in 
question,  including  several  centuries  before  Christ, 
was  the  culminating  age  of  Chinese  civilization,  in 
which  appeared  its  great  religious  reformers,  philos- 
ophers, and  authors,  its  most  daring  engineers,  and 
its  monarchs  of  highest  public  spirit  and  broadest 
powers  of  conception  and  execution.  It  was  the  age 
of  the  Great  Wall,  the  imperial  system  of  highways, 
the  system  of  canals  (though  the  Great  Canal  was 
of  later  date),  and  other  important  works  of  public 
utility. 

By  the  strenuous  labors  described  Kaotsou  ren- 
dered his  new  capital  easy  of  access  from  all  quarters 
of  the  kingdom,  while  at  frequent  intervals  along 
the  great  high-roads  of  the  empire  there  were  built 
post-houses,  caravansaries,  and  other  conveniences, 
so  as  to  make  travelling  rather  a  pleasure  than  the 
severe  task  it  formerly  had  been. 

The  capital  itself  was  made  as  attractive  as  the 
means  of  reaching  it  were  made  easy.  Siaho,  at  once 
an  able  war  minister  and  a  great  builder,  planned 
for  the  emperor  a  palace  so  magnificent  that  Kaotsou 
hesitated  in  ordering  its  erection.  Siaho  removed 
his  doubts  with  the  following  argument :  "  You 


KAOTSOU   AND   THE   DYNASTY   OP  THE   HANS.      175 

should  look  upon  all  the  empire  as  your  family;  and 
if  the  grandeur  of  your  palace  does  not  correspond 
with  that  of  your  family,  what  idea  will  it  give  of 
its  power  and  greatness  ?" 

This  argument  sufficed  :  the  palace  was  built,  and 
Kaotsou  celebrated  its  completion  with  festivities 
continued  for  several  weeks.  On  one  occasion  dur- 
ing this  period,  uplifted  with  a  full  sense  of  the 
dignity  to  which  he  had  attained,  his  pride  found 
vent  in  the  grandiloquent  remark,  "  To-day  I  feel 
that  I  am  indeed  emperor,  and  perceive  all  the  dif- 
ference between  a  subject  and  his  master." 

His  fondness  for  splendor  was  indicated  by  mag- 
nificent banquets  and  receptions,  and  his  sense  of 
dignity  by  a  court  ceremonial  which  must  have 
proved  a  wearisome  ordeal  for  his  courtiers,  though 
none  dared  infringe  it  for  fear  of  dire  consequences. 
Those  who  had  aided  him  in  his  accession  to  power 
were  abundantly  rewarded,  with  one  exception,  that 
of  bis  father,  who  seems  to  have  been  overlooked  in 
the  distribution  of  favors.  The  old  man,  not  relish- 
ing thus  being  left  at  the  foot  of  the  ladder,  took 
prompt  occasion  to  remind  his  son  of  his  claims. 
Dressing  himself  in  his  costliest  garments,  he  pre- 
sented himself  at  the  foot  of  the  throne,  where,  in  a 
speech  of  deep  humility,  ho  designated  himself  as 
the  least  yet  the  most  obedient  subject  of  the  realm. 
Kaotsou,  thus  admonished,  at  once  called  a  council 
of  ministers  and  had  the  old  man  proclaimed  "  the 
lesser  emperor."  Taking  him  by  the  hand,  he  led 
him  to  a  chair  at  the  foot  of  the  throne  as  his  future 
seat.  This  act  of  the  emperor  won  him  the  highest 


176  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

commendation  from  his  subjects,  the  Chinese  looking 
upon  respect  to  and  veneration  of  parents  as  the 
duty  surpassing  all  others  and  the  highest  evidence 
of  virtue. 

Siaho,  the  palace-builder  and  war  minister,  had 
been  specially  favored  in  this  giving  of  rewards, 
much  to  the  discontent  of  the  leading  generals,  who 
claimed  all  the  credit  for  the  successes  in  war,  and 
were  disposed  to  look  with  contempt  on  this  mere 
cabinet  warrior.  Hearing  of  their  complaints,  Kao- 
tsou  summoned  them  to  his  presence,  and  thus 
plainly  expressed  his  opinion  of  their  claims  : 

"  You  find,  I  am  told,  reason  to  complain  that  I 
have  rewarded  Siaho  above  yourselves.  Tell  me, 
who  are  they  at  the  chase  who  pursue  and  capture 
the  prey  ?  The  dogs. — But  who  direct  and  urge  on 
the  dogs  ?  Are  they  not  the  hunters  ? — You  have 
all  worked  hard  for  me;  you  have  pursued  your 
prey  with  vigor,  and  at  last  captured  and  overthrown 
it.  In  this  you  deserve  the  credit  which  one  gives 
to  the  dogs  in  the  chase.  But  the  merit  of  Siaho  is 
that  of  tbe  hunter.  It  is  he  who  has  conducted  the 
whole  of  the  war,  who  regulated  everything,  ordered 
you  to  attack  the  enemy  at  the  opportune  moment, 
and  by  his  tactics  made  you  master  of  the  cities  and 
provinces  you  have  conquered.  On  this  account. he 
deserves  the  credit  of  the  hunter,  who  is  more  worthy 
of  reward  than  are  the  dogs  whom  he  sets  loose  upon 
the  prey." 

One  further  anecdote  is  told  of  this  emperor, 
which  is  worth  repeating,  as  its  point  was  aptly 
illustrated  in  a  subsequent  event.  Though  he  had 


KAOTSOU  AND  THE  DYNASTY  OP  THE  HANS.   177 

\von  the  empire  by  the  sword,  he  was  not  looked 
upon  as  a  great  general,  and  on  one  occasion  asked 
Hansin,  his  ablest  officer,  how  many  men  he  thought 
he  (the  emperor)  could  lead  with  credit  in  the  field. 

"  Sire,"  said  the  plain-spoken  general,  "  you  can 
lead  an  army  of  a  hundred  thousand  men  very  well. 
But  that  is  all." 

"  And  how  many  can  you  lead  ?" 

"  The  more  I  have  the  better  I  shall  load  them," 
was  the  self-confident  answer. 

The  event  in  which  the  justice  of  this  criticism 
was  indicated  arose  during  a  subsequent  war  with 
the  Tartars,  who  had  resumed  their  inroads  into  the 
empire.  The  Heung-nou  were  at  this  period  gov- 
erned by  two  leading  chiefs,  Mehe  and  Tonghou, 
the  latter  arrogant  and  ambitious,  the  former  well 
able  to  bide  his  time.  The  story  goes  that  Tonghou 
sent  to  Mehe  a  demand  for  a  favorite  horse.  His 
kinsmen  advised  him  to  refuse,  but  Mehe  sent  the 
horse,  saying,  "  Would  you  quarrel  with  your  neigh- 
bor for  a  horse  ?"  Tonghou  soon  after  sent  to  de- 
mand of  Mehe  one  of  his  wives.  Mehe  again  com- 
plied, saying  to  his  friends,  "  Would  you  have  me 
undertake  a  war  for  the  sake  of  a  woman  ?"  Tong- 
hou, encouraged  by  these  results  of  his  insolence, 
next  invaded  Mehe's  dominions.  The  patient  chief, 
now  fully  prepared,  took  the  field,  and  in  a  brief 
time  had  dispersed  Tonghou's  army,  captured  and 
executed  him,  and  made  himself  the  principal  chief 
of  the  clans. 

This  able  leader,  having  punished  his  insolent 
desert  foe,  soon  led  his  warlike  followers  into  China, 

12 


178  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

took  possession  of  many  fertile  districts,  extended 
his  authority  to  the  banks  of  the  Hoang-ho,  and 
sent  plundering  expeditions  into  the  rich  provinces 
beyond.  In  the  war  that  followed  the  emperor  him- 
self took  command  of  his  troops,  and,  too  readily 
believing  the  stories  of  the  weakness  of  the  Tartar 
army  told  by  his  scouts,  resolved  on  an  immediate 
attack.  One  of  his  generals  warned  him  that  "  in 
war  we  should  never  despise  an  enemy,"  but  the 
emperor  refused  to  listen,  and  marched  confidently 
on,  at  the  head  of  his  advance  guard,  to  find  the 
enemy. 

He  found  him  to  his  sorrow.  Mehe  had  skilfully 
concealed  his  real  strength  for  the  purpose  of  draw- 
ing the  emperor  into  a  trap,  and  now,  by  a  well- 
directed  movement,  cut  off  the  rash  leader  from  his 
main  army  and  forced  him  to  take  refuge  in  the 
city  of  Pingching.  Here,  vastly  outnumbered  and 
short  of  provisions,  the  emperor  found  himself  in  a 
desperate  strait,  from  which  he  could  not  escape  by 
force  of  arms. 

In  this  dilemma  one  of  his  officers  suggested  a 
possible  method  of  release.  This  was  that,  as  a  last 
chance,  the  most  beautiful  virgin  in  the  city  should 
be  sent  as  a  peace-offering  to  the  desert  chief. 
Kaotsou  accepted  the  plan, — nothing  else  presenting 
itself, — and  the  maiden  was  chosen  and  sent.  She 
went  willingly,  it  is  said,  and  used  her  utmost  arts 
to  captivate  the  Tartar  chief.  She  succeeded,  and 
Mehe,  after  forcing  Kaotsou  to  sign  an  ignominious 
treaty,  suffered  his  prize  to  escape,  and  retired  to 
the  desert,  well  satisfied  with  the  rich  spoils  he  had 


KAOTSOU   AND   THE   DYNASTY   OP   THE    HANS.      179 

won.  Kaotsou  wa8  just  enough  to  reward  the  gen- 
eral to  whose  warning  he  had  refused  to  listen,  but 
the  scouts  who  had  misled  him  paid  dearly  for  their 
false  reports. 

This  event  seems  to  have  inspired  Kaotsou  with 
an  unconquerable  fear  of  his  desert  foe,  who  was 
soon  back  again,  pillaging  the  borders  with  impunity 
and  making  such  daring  inroads  that  the  capital 
itself  was  not  safe  from  their  assaults.  Instead  of 
trusting  to  his  army,  the  emperor  now  bought  off 
his  enemy  in  a  more  discreditable  method  than  be- 
fore, concluding  a  treaty  in  which  he  acknowledged 
Mehe  as  an  independent  ruler  and  gave  him  his 
daughter  in  marriage. 

This  weakness  led  to  revolts  in  the  empire,  Kao- 
tsou being  forced  again  to  take  the  field  against  his 
foes.  But,  worn  out  with  anxiety  and  misfortune, 
his  end  soon  approached,  his  death-bed  being  dis- 
turbed by  palace  intrigues  concerning  the  succession, 
in  which  one  of  his  favorite  wives  sought  to  have 
her  son  selected  as  the  heir.  Kaotsou,  not  heeding 
her  petition,  chose  his  eldest  son  as  the  heir-apparent, 
and  soon  after  died.  The  tragic  results  of  these  in- 
trigues for  the  crown  will  be  seen  in  the  following 
tale. 


THE  EMPRESS  POISONER  OF 
CHINA. 

ABOUT  two  centuries  before  Christ  a  woman  came 
to  the  head  of  affairs  in  China  whose  deeds  recall 
the  worst  of  those  which  have  long  added  infamy 
to  the  name  of  Lucretia  Borgia.  As  regards  the 
daughter  of  the  Borgias  tradition  has  lied :  she  was 
not  the  merciless  murderess  of  fancy  and  fame. 
But  there  is  no  mitigation  to  the  story  of  the  em- 
press Liuchi,  who,  with  poison  as  her  weapon,  made 
herself  supreme  dictator  of  the  great  Chinese  realm. 

The  death  of  the  great  emperor  Kaotsou  left  two 
aspirants  for  the  throne,  the  princes  Hoeiti,  son  of 
Liuchi,  and  Chow  Wang,  son  of  the  empress  Tsi. 
There  was  a  palace  plot  to  raise  Chow  Wang  to  the 
throne,  but  it  was  quickly  foiled  by  the  effective 
means  used  by  the  ambitious  Liuchi  to  remove  the 
rivals  from  the  path  of  her  son.  Poison  did  the  work. 
The  empress  Tsi  unsuspiciously  quaffed  the  fatal 
bowl,  which  was  then  sent  to  Chow  Wang,  who  inno- 
cently drank  the  same  perilous  draught.  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  state  of  the  conspiracy,  this  vig- 
orous method  of  the  queen-mother  brought  it  to  a 
sudden  end,  and  Hoeiti  ascended  the  throne. 

The  young  emperor  seemingly  did  not  approve  of 
ascending  to  power  over  the  dead  bodies  of  his  oppo- 
nents. He  reproved  his  mother  for  her  cruel  deed, 
180 


Reproduced  by  permission  of  The  Philadelphia  Museums. 
AN  ITINERANT  COBBLER.     CANTON,  CHINA. 


THE    EMPRESS   POISONER   OP   CHINA.  181 

and  made  a  public  statement  that  he  had  taken  no 
part  in  the  act.  Yet  under  this  public  demonstration 
secret  influences  seem  to  have  been  at  work  within 
the  palace  walls,  for  the  imperial  poisoner  retained 
her  power  at  court  and  her  influence  over  her  son. 
When  the  great  princes  sought  the  capital  to  render 
homage  to  the  new  emperor,  to  their  surprise  and 
chagrin  they  found  the  unscrupulous  dowager  em- 
press at  the  head  of  affairs,  the  sceptre  of  the  realm 
practically  in  her  hands. 

They  were  to  find  that  this  dreadful  woman  was  a 
dangerous  foe  to  oppose.  Among  the  potentates  was 
Tao  Wang,  Prince  of  Tsi,  who,  after  doing  homage 
to  the  young  emperor,  was  invited  to  feast  with  him. 
At  this  banquet  Liuchi  made  her  appearance,  and 
when  the  wine  was  passed  she  insisted  on  being 
served  first.  These  unpardonable  breaches  of  eti- 
quette— which  they  were  in  the  Chinese  code  of  good 
manners — were  looked  upon  with  astonishment  by 
the  visiting  prince,  who  made  no  effort  to  conceal  his 
displeasure  on  seeing  any  one  attempt  to  drink  before 
the  emperor. 

Liuchi,  perceiving  that  she  had  made  an  enemy  by 
her  act,  at  once  resolved  to  remove  him  from  her 
path,  with  the  relentless  and  terrible  decision  with 
which  she  had  disposed  of  her  former  rivals.  Cov- 
ertly dropping  the  poison,  which  she  seems  to  have 
always  had  ready  for  use,  into  a  goblet  of  wine,  she 
presented  it  to  the  prince  of  Tsi,  asking  him  to  pledge 
her  in  a  draught.  The  unsuspicious  guest  took  the 
goblet  from  her  hand,  without  a  dream  of  what  the 
courtesy  meant. 


182  HISTORICAL    TALES. 

Fortunately  for  him,  the  emperor,  who  distrusted 
his  mother  too  deeply  to  leave  her  unobserved,  had 
seen  her  secret  act  and  knew  too  well  what  it  meant. 
Snatching  the  fatal  bowl  from  the  prince's  hand,  he 
begged  permission  to  pledge  his  health  in  that  wine, 
and,  with  his  eyes  fixed  meaningly  on  his  mother's 
face,  lifted  it  in  turn  to  his  royal  lips. 

The  startled  woman  had  viewed  the  act  with  wide 
eyes  and  trembling  limbs.  Seeing  her  son  apparently 
on  the  point  of  drinking,  an  involuntary  cry  of 
warning  burst  from  her,  and,  springing  hastily  to 
her  feet,  she  snatched  the  fatal  cup  from  his  hand 
and  dashed  it  to  the  floor.  The  secret  was  revealed. 
The  prince  of  Tsi  had  been  on  the  very  point  of 
death.  With  an  exclamation  of  horror,  and  a  keen 
invective  addressed  to  the  murderess,  he  rushed  from 
that  perilous  room,  and  very  probably  was  not  long 
in  hastening  from  a  city  which  held  so  powerful  and 
unscrupulous  a  foe. 

The  Chinese  Borgia's  next  act  of  violence  found  a 
barbarian  for  its  victim.  The  Tartar  chief  Mehe 
sent  an  envoy  to  the  capital  of  China,  with  a  message 
which  aroused  the  anger  of  the  empress,  who  at  once 
ordered  him  to  be  executed,  heedless  of  the  fact  that 
she  thus  brought  the  nation  to  the  brink  of  war. 
Four  years  afterwards  Hoeiti,  the  emperor,  died, 
leaving  vacant  the  throne  which  he  had  so  feebly 
filled. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  Liuchi  had  any  hand 
in  this  closing  of  a  brief  and  uneventful  reign.  Her 
son  was  in  no  sense  in  her  way,  and  served  as  a  use- 
ful shield  behind  which  she  held  the  reins  of  gov- 


THE   EMPRESS   POISONER   OF   CHINA.  183 

eminent.  But  she  was  in  no  haste  to  fill  the  vacant 
throne,  preferring  to  rule  openly  as  the  supreme 
power  in  the  realm.  In  order  to  consolidate  her 
strength,  she  placed  her  brothers  and  near  relations 
in  the  great  posts  of  the  empire,  and  strengthened 
her  position  by  every  means  fair  and  foul. 

It  soon  became  evident,  however,  that  this  ambi- 
tious scheme  could  not  be  carried  through.  Through- 
out the  land  went  up  a  cry  for  a  successor  to  the 
dead  emperor.  In  this  dilemma  the  daring  woman 
adopted  a  bold  plan,  bringing  forward  a  boy  who 
she  declared  was  the  offspring  of  her  dead  son,  and 
placing  this  child  of  unknown  parents  upon  the 
vacant  throne.  As  a  regent  was  needed  during  the 
minority  of  her  counterfeit  grandson,  she  had  herself 
proclaimed  as  the  holder  of  this  high  office. 

All  this  was  very  little  to  the  taste  of  the  ministers 
of  the  late  emperor.  Never  before  had  the  govern- 
ment of  China  been  in  the  hands  of  a  woman.  But 
they  dared  not  make  an  effort  to  change  it,  or  even 
to  speak  their  sentiments  in  too  loud  a  tone.  Liuchi 
had  ways  of  suppressing  discontent  that  forced  her 
enemies  to  hold  their  peace.  The  only  one  who  ven- 
tured to  question  the  arbitrary  will  of  the  regent 
was  the  mother  of  the  nominal  emperor,  and  sudden 
death  removed  her  from  the  scene.  Liuchi's  ready 
means  of  vengeance  had  been  brought  into  play 
again. 

For  years  now  the  imperious  empress  ruled  China 
unquestioned.  Others  who  ventured  on  her  path 
may  have  fallen,  but  the  people  remained  content,  so 
that  the  usurper  seems  to  have  avoided  any  oppres- 


184  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

sion  of  her  subjects.  But  these  years  brought  the 
•child  she  had  placed  on  the  throne  well  on  towards 
man's  estate,  and  be  began  to  show  signs  of  an  inten- 
tion to  break  loose  from  leading-strings.  He  was 
possessed  of  ability,  or  at  least  of  energy,  and  there 
were  those  ready  to  whisper  in  his  ear  the  bitter  tale 
of  how  his  mother  had  been  forced  to  swallow  Liu- 
chi's  draught  of  death. 

Stirred  to  grief  and  rage  by  these  whispers  of  a 
fell  deed,  the  youthful  ruler  vowed  revenge  upon  the 
murderess.  He  vowed  his  own  death  in  doing  so. 
His  hasty  words  were  carried  by  spies  to  Liuchi's 
ears,  and  with  her  usual  promptness  she  caused  the 
imprudent  youth  to  be  seized  and  confined  within 
the  palace  prison.  The  puppet  under  whom  she 
ruled  had  proved  inconvenient,  and  there  was  not  a 
moment's  hesitation  in  putting  him  out  of  the  way. 
What  became  of  him  is  not  known,  the  prison  rarely 
revealing  its  secrets,  but  from  Liuchi's  character  we 
may  safely  surmise  his  fate. 

The  regent  at  once  set  to  work  to  choose  a  more 
pliant  successor  to  her  rebellious  tool.  But  her  cup 
of  crime  was  nearly  full.  Though  the  people  re- 
mained silent,  there  was  deep  discontent  among  the 
officials  of  the  realm,  while  the  nobles  were  fiercely 
indignant  at  this  virtual  seizure  of  the  throne  by  an 
ambitious  woman.  The  storm  grew  day  by  day. 
One  great  chief  boldly  declared  that  he  acknowledged 
"  neither  empress  nor  emperor,"  and  the  family  of 
the  late  monarch  Kaotsou  regained  their  long-lost 
courage  on  perceiving  these  evidences  of  a  spirit  of 
revolt. 


THE   EMPRESS    POISONER   OP   CHINA.  185 

Dangers  were  gathering  around  the  resolute  re- 
gent. But  her  party  was  strong,  her  hand  firm,  her 
courage  and  energy  great,  and  she  would  perhaps 
have  triumphed  over  all  her  foes  had  not  the  prob- 
lem been  unexpectedly  solved  by  her  sudden  death. 
The  story  goes  that,  while  walking  one  day  in  the 
palace  halls,  meditating  upon  the  best  means  of 
meeting  and  defeating  her  numerous  foes,  she  found 
herself  suddenly  face  to  face  with  a.  hideous  spectre, 
around  which  rose  the  shades  of  the  victims  whom 
she  had  removed  by  poison  or  violence  from  her 
path.  With  a  epasm  of  terror  the  horrified  woman 
fell  and  died.  Conscience  had  smitten  her  in  the 
form  of  this  terrific  vision,  and  retribution  came  to 
the  poisoner  in  the  halls  which  she  had  made  in- 
famous by  her  crimes. 

Her  death  ended  the  hopes  of  her  friends.  Her 
party  fell  to  pieces  throughout  the  realm,  but  a  strong 
force  still  held  the  palace,  where  they  fiercely  de- 
fended themselves  against  the  army  brought  by  their 
foes.  But  their  great  empress  leader  was  gone,  one 
by  one  they  fell  in  vain  defence,  and  the  capture  of 
the  palace  put  an  end  to  the  power  which  the  woman 
usurper  had  so  long  and  vigorously  maintained. 


THE  INVASION  OF  THE  TARTAR 
STEPPES. 

.MANY  as  have  been  the  wars  of  China,  the  Chinese 
are  not  a  warlike  people.  Their  wars  have  mostly 
been  fought  at  home  to  repress  rebellion  or  overcome 
feudal  lords,  and  during  the  long  history  of  the  na- 
tion its  armies  have  rarely  crossed  the  borders  of  the 
empire  to  invade  foreign  states.  In  fact,  the  chief 
aggressive  movements  of  the  Chinese  have  been 
rather  wars  of  defence  than  of  offence,  wars  forced 
upon  them  by  the  incessant  sting  of  invasions  from 
the  desert  tribes. 

For  ages  the  Tartars  made  China  their  plunder- 
ground,  crossing  the  borders  in  rapid  raids  against 
which  the  Great  Wall  and  the  frontier  forces  proved 
useless  for  defence,  and  carrying  off  vast  spoil  from 
the  industrious  Chinese.  Thej7  were  driven  from 
the  soil  scores  of  times,  only  to  return  as  virulently 
as  before.  Their  warlike  energy  so  far  surpassed 
that  of  their  victims  that  one  emperor  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  admit  that  three  Tartars  were  the  equal  of 
five  Chinese.  They  were  bought  off  at  times  with 
tribute  of  rich  goods  and  beautiful  maidens,  and 
their  chief  was  even  given  the  sister  of  an  empei-or 
for  wife.  And  still  they  came,  again  and  again, 
swarms  of  fierce  wasps  which  stung  the  country 
more  deeply  with  each  return. 
186 


THE   INVASION   OP   THE   TARTAR   STEPPES.         187 

This  in  time  became  intolerable,  and  a  new  policy 
was  adopted,  that  of  turning  the  tables  on  the  Tar- 
tars and  invading  their  country  in  turn.  In  the 
reign  of  Vouti,  an  emperor  of  the  Han  dynasty  (135 
B.C.),  the  Tartar  king  sent  to  demand  the  hand  of  a 
Chinese  princess  in  marriage,  offering  to  continue  the 
existing  truce.  Bitter  experience  had  taught  the  Chi- 
nese how  little  such  an  offer  was  to  be  trusted.  Wang 
Kue,  an  able  general, suggested  the  policy  "of  destroy- 
ing them  rather  than  to  remain  constantly  exposed 
to  their  insults,"  and  in  the  end  war  was  declared. 

The  hesitation  of  the  emperor  had  not  been  with- 
out abundant  reason.  To  carry  their  arms  into  the 
wilds  of  Central  Asia  seemed  a  desperate  enterprise 
to  the  peaceful  Chinese,  and  thoir  first  effort  in  this 
direction  proved  a  serious  failure.  Wang  Kue,  at 
the  head  of  an  army  of  three  hundred  thousand 
men,  marched  into  the  desert,  adopting  a  stratagem 
to  bring  the  Tartars  within  his  reach.  His  plan 
failed,  the  Tartars  avoided  an  attack,  and  Wang  Kue 
closed  the  campaign  without  a  shred  of  the  glory 
he  had  promised  to  gain.  The  emperor  ordered  his 
arrest,  which  he  escaped  in  the  effective  Eastern  fash- 
ion of  himself  putting  an  end  to  his  life. 

But,  though  the  general  was  dead,  his  policy  sur- 
vived, his  idea  of  aggression  taking  deep  root  in  the 
Chinese  official  mind.  Many  centuries  were  to  elapse, 
however,  before  it  bore  fruit  in  the  final  subjection 
of  the  desert  tribes,  and  China  was  to  become  their 
prey  as  a  whole  before  they  became  the  subjects  of 
its  throne. 

The  failure  of  Wang  Kue  gave  boldness   to  the 


188  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

Tartai-s,  who  carried  on  in  their  old  way  the  war  the 
Chinese  had  begun,  making  such  bold  and  destructive 
raids  that  the  emperor  sent  out  a  general  with  orders 
to  fight  the  enemy  wherever  he  could  find  them. 
This  warrior,  Wei  Tsing  by  name,  succeeded  in 
catching  the  raiders  in  a  trap.  The  Tartar  chief, 
armed  with  the  courage  of  despair,  finally  cut  his 
way  through  the  circle  of  his  foes  and  brought  off 
the  most  of  his  men,  but  his  camp,  baggage,  wives, 
children,  and  more  than  fifteen  thousand  soldiers  were 
left  behind,  and  the  victorious  general  became  the 
hero  of  his  age,  the  emperor  travelling  a  day's  jour- 
ney from  the  capital  to  welcome  him  on  his  return. 
This,  and  a  later  success  by  the  same  general, 
gave  the  Chinese  the  courage  they  so  sadly  needed, 
teaching  them  that  the  Tartars  were  not  quite  be- 
yond the  power  of  the  sword.  A  council  was  called, 
a  proposal  to  carry  the  war  into  the  enemy's  country 
approved,  and  an  army,  composed  mostly  of  cavalry, 
sent  out  under  an  experienced  officer  named  Hokiu- 
ping.  The  ill  fortune  of  the  former  invasion  was 
now  replaced  by  good.  The  Tartars,  completely 
taken  by  surprise,  were  everywhere  driven  back,  and 
Hokiuping  returned  to  China  rich  in  booty,  among 
it  the  golden  images  used  as  religious  emblems  by 
one  of  the  Tartar  princes.  Eeturning  with  a  larger 
force,  he  swept  far  through  their  country,  boasting 
on  his  return  that  he  had  put  thirty  thousand  Tar- 
tars to  the  sword.  As  a  result,  two  of  the  princes 
and  a  large  number  of  their  followers  surrendered 
to  Youti,  and  were  disarmed  and  dispersed  through 
the  frontier  settlements  of  the  realm. 


THE   INVASION   OF   THE   TARTAR   STEPPES.         189 

These  expeditions  were  followed  by  an  invasion 
of  the  Heung-nou  country  by  a  large  army,  com- 
manded by  the  two  successful  generals  Wei  Tsing 
and  Hokiuping.  This  movement  was  attended  with 
signal  success,  and  the  Tartars  for  the  time  were 
thoroughly  cowed,  while  the  Chinese  lost  much  of 
their  old  dread  of  their  desert  foe.  Years  afterwards 
(110  B.C.)  a  new  Tartar  war  began,  Youti  himself 
taking  command  of  an  army  of  two  hundred  thou- 
sand men,  and  sending  an  envoy  to  the  Tartar  king, 
commanding  him  to  surrender  all  prisoners  and 
plunder  and  to  acknowledge  China  as  sovereign  lord 
of  himself  and  his  people.  All  that  the  proud  chief 
surrendered  was  the  head  of  the  ambassador,  which 
he  sent  back  with  a  bold  defiance. 

For  some  reason,  which  history  does  not  give, 
Vouti  failed  to  lead  his  all-conquering  army  against 
the  desert  foe,  and  when,  in  a  later  year,  the  steppes 
were  invaded,  the  imperial  army  found  the  warlike 
tribes  ready  for  the  onset.  The  war  continued  for 
twenty  years  more,  with  varied  fortune,  and  when, 
after  fifty  years  of  almost  incessant  warfare  with 
the  nomad  warriors,  Vouti  laid  down  his  sword  with 
his  life,  the  Tartars  were  still  free  and  defiant.  Yet 
China  had  learned  a  new  way  of  dealing  with  the 
warlike  tribes,  and  won  a  wide  reputation  in  Asia, 
while  her  frontiers  were  much  more  firmly  held. 

The  long  reign  of  the  great  emperor  had  not  been 
confined  to  wars  with  the  Tartars.  In  his  hands  the 
empire  of  China  was  greatly  widened  by  extensions  in 
the  west.  The  large  provinces  of  Yunnan,  Szchuen, 
and  Fuhkien  were  conquered  and  added  to  the 


190  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

Chinese  state,  while  other  independent  kingdoms 
were  made  vassal  states.  And  "  thereby  hangs  a 
tale"  which  we  have  next  to  tell. 

Far  west  in  Northern  China  dwelt  a  barbarian 
people  named  the  Yuchi,  numerous  and  prosperous, 
yet  no  match  in  war  for  their  persistent  enemies  the 
Tartars  of  the  steppes.  In  the  year  165  B.C.  they 
were  so  utterly  beaten  in  an  invasion  of  the  Heung- 
nou  that  they  were  forced  to  quit  their  homes  and 
seek  safety  and  freedom  at  a  distance.  Far  to  the 
west  they  went,  where  they  coalesced  with  those 
warlike  tribes  of  Central  Asia  who  afterwards  be- 
came the  bane  of  the  empire  of  Rome. 

The  fate  of  this  people  seemed  a  bitter  one  to 
Vouti,  when  it  was  told  to  his  sympathetic  ear,  and, 
in  the  spirit  in  which  King  Arthur  sent  out  his 
Round  Table  Knights  on  romantic  quests,  he  turned 
to  his  council  and  asked  if  any  among  them  was 
daring  enough  to  follow  the  track  of  these  wan- 
derers and  bring  them  back  to  the  land  they  had 
lost.  One  of  them,  Chang  Keen,  volunteered  to 
take  up  the  difficult  quest  and  to  traverse  Asia 
from  end  to  end  in  search  of  the  fugitive  tribes. 

This  knight  of  romance  was  to  experience  many 
adventures  before  he  should  return  to  his  native  land. 
Attended  by  a  hundred  devoted  companions,  he  set 
out,  but  in  endeavoring  to  cross  the  country  of  the 
Heung-nou  the  whole  party  were  made  prisoners  and 
held  in  captivity  for  ten  long  years.  Finally,  after  a 
bitter  experience  of  desert  life,  the  survivors  made 
their  escape,  and,  with  a  courage  that  had  outlived 
their  years  of  thraldom,  resumed  their  search  for 


THE   INVASION   OF  THE   TARTAR   STEPPES.         191 

the  vanished  tribes.  Many  western  countries  were 
visited  in  the  search,  and  much  strange  knowledge 
was  gained.  In  the  end  the  Yuchi  were  found  in 
their  new  home.  With  them  Chang  Keen  dwelt  for 
a  year,  but  all  his  efforts  to  induce  them  to  return 
were  in  vain.  They  were  safe  in  their  new  land, 
and  did  not  care  to  risk  encounter  with  their  old  foes, 
even  with  the  Emperor  of  China  for  their  friend. 

Finally  the  adventurous  envoy  returned  to  China 
with  two  of  his  companions,  the  only  survivors  of 
the  hundred  with  whom  he  had  set  out  years  before. 
He  had  an  interesting  story  to  tell  of  lands  and 
peoples  unknown  to  the  Chinese,  and  wrote  an  ac- 
count of  his  travels  and  of  the  geography  of  the 
countries  he  had  seen.  Chang  Keen  was  subse- 
quently sent  on  a  mission  to  the  western  kingdom 
of  Ousun,  where  he  was  received  with  much  honor, 
though  the  king  declined  to  acknowledge  himself  a 
vassal  of  the  ruler  of  China.  From  here  he  sent 
explorers  far  to  the  south  and  north,  bringing  back 
with  him  fresh  information  concerning  the  Asiatic 
nations. 

Of  the  Yuchi  later  stories  are  told.  They  are  said 
to  have  come  into  collision  with  the  Parthians,  whom 
they  vanquished  after  a  long-continued  struggle. 
They  are  also  credited  with  having  destroyed  the 
kingdom  of  Bactria,  a  far-eastern  relic  of  the  empire 
of  Alexander  the  Great.  Several  centuries  later 
they  may  have  combined  with  their  old  foes  to  form 
the  Huns,  who  flung  themselves  in  a  devastating 
torrent  upon  Europe,  and  eventually  became  the 
founders  of  the  modern  kingdom  of  Hungary. 


THE  "  CRIMSON  EYEBROWSr 

WITH  the  opening  of  the  Christian  era  a  usurper 
came  to  the  Chinese  throne.  In  the  year  1  B.C.  the 
emperor  Gaiti  died,  and  Wang  Mang,  a  powerful 
official,  joined  with  the  mother  of  the  dead  emperor 
to  seize  the  power  of  the  state.  The  friends  and 
officials  of  Gaiti  were  ruined  and  disgraced,  and  in 
the  year  1  A.D.  a  boy  of  nine  years  was  raised  to  the 
throne  as  nominal  emperor,  under  whose  shadow 
Wang  Mang  ruled  supreme.  Money  was  needed  for 
the  ambitious  upstart,  and  he  obtained  it  by  robbing 
the  graves  of  former  monarchs  of  the  jewels  and 
other  valuables  buried  with  them.  This,  from  the 
Chinese  point  of  view,  was  a  frightful  sacrilege,  yet 
the  people  seem  to  have  quietly  submitted  to  the  vio- 
lation of  the  imperial  tombs. 

Five  years  passed  away,  and  the  emperor  reached 
the  age  of  sixteen.  He  might  grow  troublesome  in 
a  year  or  two  more.  Wang  Mang  decided  that  he 
had  lived  long  enough.  The  poisoned  cup,  which 
seems  to  have  been  always  ready  in  the  Chinese 
palace,  was  handed  to  the  boy  by  the  usurper  him- 
self. Drinking  it  unsuspiciously,  the  unfortunate 
youth  was  soon  lying  on  the  floor  in  the  agonies  of 
death,  while  the  murderer  woke  the  palace  halls  with 
his  cries  of  counterfeit  grief,  loudly  bewailing  the 
young  emperor's  sad  fate,  and  denouncing  heaven 
192 


THE   "CRIMSON    EYEBROWS."  193 

fov  having  sent  this  sudden  and  fatal  illness  upon 
the  royal  youth. 

To  keep  up  appearances,  another  child  was  placed 
upon  the  throne.  A  conspiracy  against  the  usurper 
was  now  formed  by  the  great  men  of  the  state,  but 
Wang  Mang  speedily  crushed  plot  and  plotters,  rid 
himself  of  the  new  boy  emperor  in  the  same  arbi- 
trary fashion  as  before,  and,  throwing  off  the  mask 
he  had  thus  far  worn,  had  himself  proclaimed  em- 
peror of  the  realm.  It  was  the  Han  dynasty  he  had 
in  this  arbitrary  fashion  brought  to  an  end.  He 
called  his  dynasty  by  the  name  of  Sin. 

But  the  usurper  soon  learned  the  truth  of  the 
saying,  "  une?  sy  lies  the  head  that  wears  a  crown." 
The  Tartars  ft?  the  desert  defied  his  authority,  broke 
their  long  truce,  and  raided  the  rich  provinces  of 
the  north,  which  had  enjoyed  thirty  years  of  peace 
and  prosperity.  In  this  juncture  Wang  Mang 
showed  that  he  was  better  fitted  to  give  poison  to 
bo}-s  than  to  meet  his  foes  in  the  field.  The  Tartars 
committed  their  ravages  with  impunity,  and  other 
enemies  were  quickly  in  arms.  Rebellions  broke  out 
in  the  ea*t  and  the  south,  and  soon,  wherever  the 
usurper  turned,  he  saw  foes  in  the  field  or  lukewarm 
friends  at  home. 

The  war  that  followed  continued  for  twelve  years, 
the  armies  of  rebellion,  led  by  princes  of  the  Han 
line  of  emperors,  drawing  their  net  closer  and  closer 
around  him,  until  at  length  he  was  shut  up  wiihin 
his  capital  city,  with  an  army  of  foes  around  its 
walls.  The  defence  was  weak,  and  the  victors  soon 
made  their  way  through  the  gates,  appearing  quickly 
13 


194  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

at  the  palace  doors.  The  usurper  had  reached  the 
end  of  his  troubled  reign,  but  at  this  fatal  juncture 
had  not  the  courage  to  take  his  own  life.  The  vic- 
torious soldiers  rushed  in  while  he  was  hesitating  in 
mortal  fear,  and  with  a  stroke  put  an  end  to  his 
reign  and  his  existence.  His  body  was  hacked  into 
bleeding  fragments,  which  were  cast  about  the  streets 
of  the  city,  to  be  trampled  underfoot  by  the  rejoicing 
throng. 

It  is  not,  however,  the  story  of  Wang  Mang'e 
career  that  we  have  set  out  to  tell,  but  that  of  one  of 
his  foes,  the  leader  of  a  band  of  rebels,  Fanchong  by 
name.  This  partisan  leader  had  shown  himself  £ 
man  of  striking  military  ability,  bringing  his  troops 
under  strict  discipline,  and  defeating  all  his  foes. 
Soldiers  flocked  to  his  ranks,  his  band  became  an 
army,  and  in  the  crisis  of  the  struggle  he  took  a  step 
that  made  him  famous  in  Chinese  history.  He  or- 
dered his  soldiers  to  paint  their  eyebrows  red,  as  a 
sign  that  they  were  ready  to  fight  to  the  last  drop 
of  their  blood.  Then  he  issued  the  following  procla- 
mation to  the  people :  "  If  you  meet  the  '  Crimson 
Eyebrows,'  join  yourselves  to  them;  it  is  the  sure 
road  to  safety.  You  can  fight  the  usurper's  troops 
without  danger ;  but  if  you  wish  for  death  you  may 
join  Wang  Mang's  army." 

The  end  of  the  war  was  not  the  end  of  the  "  Crim- 
son Eyebrows."  Fanchong  was  ambitious,  and  a 
large  number  of  his  followers  continued  under  his  flag. 
They  had  aided  greatly  in  putting  a  Han  emperor 
on  the  throne,  but  they  now  became  his  most  for- 
midable foes,  changing  from  patriots  into  brigands, 


THE   "CRIMSON   EYEBROWS."  195 

and  keeping  that  part  of  the  empire  which  they 
haunted  in  a  state  of  the  liveliest  alarm. 

Against  this  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  realm  the 
new  emperor  sent  his  ablest  commander,  and  a  fierce 
campaign  ensued,  in  which  the  brigand  band  stub- 
bornly fought  for  life  and  license.  In  the  end  they 
suffered  a  crushing  defeat,  and  for  the  time  sank  out 
of  sight,  but  only  to  rise  again  at  a  latej-  date. 

The  general  who  had  defeated  them,  an  able  prince 
of  the  Han  family,  followed  up  his  victory  by  seizing 
the  throne  itself  and  deposing  the  weak  emperor. 
The  latter  fled  to  the  retreat  of  the  remnant  of  the 
brigand  band,  and  begged  their  aid  to  restore  him 
to  the  throne,  but  Fanchong,  who  had  no  idea  of 
placing  a  greater  than  himself  at  the  head  of  his 
band,  escaped  from  the  awkward  position  by  put- 
ting his  guest  to  death. 

Soon  after  the  "  Crimson  Eyebrows"  were  in  the 
field  again,  not  as  supporters  of  an  imperial  refugee, 
but  as  open  enemies  of  the  public  peace,  each  man 
fighting  for  his  own  hand.  While  the  new  ruler 
was  making  himself  strong  at  Loyang,  the  new  capi- 
tal, Fanchong  and  his  brigands  seized  Changnan, 
Wang  Mang's  old  capital,  and  pillaged  it  mercilessly. 
Making  it  their  head-quarters,  they  lived  on  the  in- 
habitants of  the  city  and  the  surrounding  district, 
holding  on  until  the  rapid  approach  of  the  army  of 
the  emperor  admonished  them  that  it  was  time  to 
seek  a  safer  place  of  retreat. 

The  army  of  the  brigand  chief  grew  until  it  was 
believed  to  exceed  two  hundred  thousand  men,  while 
their  excesses  were  so  great  that  they  were  every- 


196  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

where  regarded  as  public  enemies,  hated  and  exe- 
crated by  the  people  at  large.  But  the  career  of 
the  "  Crimson  Eyebrows"  was  near  its  end.  The  em- 
peror sent  against  them  an  army  smaller  than  their 
own,  but  under  the  command  of  Fongy,  one  of  the 
most  skilful  generals  of  the  age.  His  lack  of  num- 
bers was  atoned  for  by  skill  in  manoeuvres,  the  brig- 
ands were  beaten  in  numerous  skirmishes,  and  at 
length  Fongy  risked  a  general  engagement,  which 
ended  in  a  brilliant  victory.  During  the  crisis  of 
the  battle  he  brought  up  a  reserve  of  prisoners  whom 
he  had  captured  in  the  previous  battles  and  had  won 
over  to  himself.  These,  wearing  still  the  crimson 
sign  of  the  brigands,  mingled  unobserved  among 
their  former  comrades,  and  at  a  given  signal  sud- 
denly made  a  fierce  attack  upon  them.  This  treach- 
erous assault  produced  a  panic,  and  Fanchong's  army 
was  soon  flying  in  disorder  and  dismay. 

Terms  were  now  offered  to  the  brigand  chief,  which 
he  accepted,  and  his  army  disbanded,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  some  fragments,  which  soon  gathered 
again  into  a  powerful  force.  This  Fongy  attacked 
and  completely  dispersed,  and  the  long  and  striking 
career  of  the  "  Crimson  Eyebrows"  came  to  an  end. 


A  CHINESE    PAGODA. 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  CENTRAL 
ASIA. 

THE  Chinese  are  the  most  practical  and  the  least 
imaginative  of  the  peoples  of  the  earth.  During  their 
whole  four  thousand  years  and  more  of  historical 
existence  the  idea  of  military  glory  seems  never  to 
have  dawned  upon  their  souls.  They  have  had 
wars,  abundance  of  them,  but  these  have  nearly  all 
been  fought  for  the  purpose  of  holding  on  to  old 
possessions,  or  of  widening  the  borders  of  the  em- 
pire by  taking  in  neighboring  lands.  No  Alexander, 
Csesar,  or  Napoleon  has  ever  been  bora  on  Chinese 
soil ;  no  army  has  ever  been  led  abroad  in  search  of 
the  will-of-the-wisp  called  glory ;  the  wild  fancy  of 
becoming  lords  of  the  world  has  always  been  out  of 
touch  with  their  practical  minds. 

If  we  consider  closely  the  wars  of  China  the 
truth  of  what  is  here  said  will  appear.  The  great 
bulk  of  them  have  been  fought  within  the  limits  of 
the  empire,  for  the  purposes  of  defence  against  inva- 
sion, the  suppression  of  revolt,  the  overthrow  of  the 
power  of  feudal  lords,  or  in  consequence  of  the  am- 
bition of  successful  generals  who  coveted  the  throne. 
The  wars  of  external  conquest  have  been  singularly 
few,  consisting  principally  in  the  invasion  of  the 
domain  of  the  Tartars,  to  which  the  Chinese  were 
driven  by  the  incessant  raids  of  the  desert  hordes. 

197 


198  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

In  addition,  there  have  been  invasions  of  Corea  and 
Indo-China,  but  merely  as  passing  incidents  in  the 
long  era  of  Chinese  historj*,  not  as  inaugurating  a 
career  of  conquest.  The  great  invasion  of  Japan  in 
the  thirteenth  century,  the  only  pure  war  of  con- 
quest of  China,  was  made  by  Kublai  Khan,  a  Tartar 
emperor,  and  largely  with  Tartar  troops.  In  brief, 
the  Chinese  have  shown  themselves  in  disposition 
one  of  the  most  peaceful  of  nations,  only  asking  to 
be  let  alone,  and  are  very  unlikely  to  begin  the  war 
of  conquest  which  some  modern  military  writers 
fear. 

Yet  there  is  one  instance  in  Chinese  history  which 
seems  to  contradict  what  has  here  been  said,  that  of 
the  career  of  a  great  conqueror  who  carried  the  arms 
of  China  over  the  whole  width  of  Asia,  and  who 
seemed  actuated  by  that  thirst  for  military  glory 
which  has  inspired  most  of  the  great  wars  of  the 
world  and  brought  untold  misery  upon  mankind. 
This  was  the  great  leader  Panchow,  who  lived  under 
three  emperors  of  the  Han  dynasty,  and  whose  career 
is  full  of  interest  and  event. 

Panchow  first  appears  in  the  reign  of  the  emperor 
Mingti,  who  came  to  the  throne  in  57  A.D.  His 
victories  were  won  in  the  west,  in  the  region  of 
Kokonor,  where  he  brought  to  an  end  the  invasions 
of  the  Tartar  tribes.  Under  Changti,  the  succeed- 
ing emperor,  Panchow  continued  his  work  in  the 
west,  carrying  on  the  war  at  his  own  expense,  with 
an  army  recruited  from  pardoned  criminals. 

Changti  died,  and  Hoti  came  to  the  throne,  a  child 
ten  years  of  age.  It  was  under  his  reign  that  the 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  CENTRAL  ASIA.  199 

events  to  be  described  took  place.  During  the  pre- 
ceding reigns  Panchow  had  made  the  power  of  China 
felt  in  regions  far  west  of  that  realm,  bringing  sev- 
eral small  kingdoms  and  many  tribes  under  subjec- 
tion, conquering  the  city  of  Kashgar,  and  extending 
the  western  borders  of  China  as  far  into  the  interior 
of  Asia  as  the  great  upland  region  of  the  Pamir. 
The  power  of  his  arms  had  added  Eastern  Turkes- 
tan to  the  Chinese  empire,  a  region  which  it  con- 
tinues to  hold  to-day. 

But  these  conquests  were  not  enough  to  satisfy  the 
ambition  of  the  veteran  general.  Under  the  boy 
emperor  Hoti  he  was  free  to  carry  out  his  designs  on 
a  much  larger  scale.  With  a  powerful  army  he  set 
out  on  the  only  campaign  of  ambitious  warfare  in 
which  China  ever  indulged.  His  previous  victories 
had  carried  the  terror  of  his  name  far  over  the 
kingdoms  of  the  west,  and  he  now  led  his  army  to 
conquest  after  conquest  in  the  great  oases  of  West- 
ern Turkestan,  subduing  kingdom  after  kingdom 
until  no  less  than  fifteen  had  submitted  to  the  power 
of  his  arms,  and  his  victorious  army  stood  on  the 
far-distant  shores  of  the  Caspian  Sea, — the  Northern 
Sea,  as  it  is  named  in  Chinese  annals. 

To  cross  this  sea  would  have  brought  him  into 
Europe,  which  continent  had  never  dreamed  of  in- 
vasion from  the  mysterious  land  of  Cathay,  on  the 
eastern  horizon  of  the  world.  Panchow's  ambition 
was  not  yet  satiated.  There  came  to  his  mind  the 
idea  of  crossing  this  seeming  great  barrier  to  his  vic- 
torious career.  He  had,  with  his  army,  overcome 
innumerable  difficulties  of  waterless  deserts,  lofty 


200  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

mountain  ranges,  great  rivers,  and  valiant  enemies. 
Thus  far  his  progress  had  been  irresistible,  and 
should  a  mere  expanse  of  water  put  an  end  to  his 
westward  march? 

He  was  checked  by  dread  of  perils  in  the  unknown 
land  beyond.  The  people  on  the  borders  of  the 
Caspian  represented  that  salt  sea  as  being  far  more 
formidable  than  it  really  was.  They  dilated  on  its 
width,  the  vast  mountains  which  lay  beyond,  the 
fierce  tribes  who  would  render  a  landing  difficult  and 
dangerous,  and  the  desert  regions  beyond  the  moun- 
tains, until  Panchow  reluctantly  gave  up  his  scheme. 
He  had  already  been  for  several  years  warring  with 
savage  nature  and  barbarous  man,  and  had  extended 
the  dominions  of  his  emperor  much  farther  than 
any  Chinese  general  had  ever  dreamed  of  before.  It 
was  time  to  call  a  halt,  and  not  expose  his  valiant 
followers  to  the  unknown  perils  beyond  the  great 
inland  sea. 

The  army  remained  long  encamped  on  the  Cas- 
pian, coming  into  communication  through  its  envoys 
with  the  Roman  empire,  whose  eastern  borders  lay 
not  far  away,  and  forming  relations  of  commerce 
with  this  rich  and  powerful  realm.  This  done,  Pan- 
chow  led  his  ever-victorious  warriors  back  to  their 
native  land,  to  tell  the  story  of  the  marvels  they 
had  seen  and  the  surprising  adventures  they  had  en- 
countered. 

That  Panchow  was  moved  by  the  mere  thirst  for 
military  fame  may  well  be  doubted  in  view  of  what 
we  know  of  the  character  of  the  Chinese.  His  pur- 
pose was  perhaps  th«  more  practical  one  of  opening 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   CENTRAL   ASIA.  201 

by  force  of  arms  new  channels  of  trade,  and  over- 
coming the  obstacles  placed  by  the  Parthians  and 
other  nations  of  Asia  in  the  way  of  freedom  of  com- 
merce. On  his  return  to  China  he  found  himself 
the  idol  of  the  people,  the  trusted  friend  of  the  em- 
peror, and  the  most  revered  and  powerful  subject  of 
the  empire.  He  died  in  his  eightieth  year,  enjoying 
a  fame  such  as  no  general  of  his  race  had  ever  before 
attained. 


THE  SIEGE  OF  SINCHING. 

WHEN  the  great  dynasty  of  the  Hans,  which  had 
held  supreme  rule  in  China  for  more  than  four  hun- 
dred years,  came  to  an  end,  it  left  that  country  di- 
vided up  into  three  independent  kingdoms.  The 
emperors  who  had  once  ruled  over  all  China  found 
themselves  now  lords  of  its  smallest  division,  while 
the  kingdom  of  Wei  included  the  largest  and  most 
populous  districts  in  the  realm.  A  war  for  suprem- 
acy arose  between  these  three  kingdoms,  which 
ended  in  the  kings  of  Wei  becoming  supreme  over 
the  whole  empire  and  establishing  a  new  dynasty, 
which  they  named  the  dynasty  of  Tsin.  Of  this 
war  we  have  only  one  event  to  relate,  an  interesting 
example  of  Chinese  fortitude  and  valor. 

Shortly  after  250  A.D.  an  army  of  the  Han  em- 
peror, led  by  a  general  named  Chukwoko,  settled 
down  to  the  siege  of  a  small  walled  town  named 
Sinching,  held  by  three  thousand  men  under  the 
command  of  a  leader  named  Changte,  whose  forti- 
tude and  energy  alone  saved  this  place  for  the  king 
of  Wei. 

For  ninety  days  the  siege  went  on,  the  catapults 
of  the  besieging  force  playing  incessantly  upon  the 
walls,  which,  despite  the  activity  of  the  garrison, 
were  in  time  pierced  in  many  places,  while  several 
gaping  breaches  lay  open  to  the  foe.  Changte  had 
202 


THE   SIEGE   OP   SINCHINQ.  203 

defended  the  place  vigorously,  no  commander  could 
have  done  more,  and,  as  no  sign  of  a  relieving  force 
appeared,  he  could  with  all  honor  have  capitulated, 
thrown  open  the  gates,  and  marched  out  with  such 
dignity  as  the  victorious  enemy  would  permit. 

But  this  was  not  the  view  of  his  duty  held  by  the 
valorous  soldier.  He  was  one  of  the  kind  who  die 
but  do  not  surrender,  and  in  his  extremity  had  re- 
course to  the  following  ruse.  He  sent  word  to 
Chukwoko  that,  as  the  place  was  clearly  untenable, 
he  was  willing  to  surrender  if  he  were  granted  ten 
days  more  of  grace. 

"  It  is  a  law  among  the  princes  of  Wei,"  he  said, 
"  that  the  governor  of  a  place  which  has  held  out  for 
a  hundred  days,  and  then,  seeing  no  prospect  of 
relief,  surrenders,  shall  not  be  held  guilty  of  dere- 
liction of  duty." 

Chukwoko  gladly  accepted  this  offer,  being  weary 
of  his  long  delay  before  this  small  post,  and  quite 
willing  to  save  his  men  from  the  perils  of  an  assault. 
But,  to  his  astonishment,  a  few  days  later  he  saw 
fresh  bulwarks  rising  above  those  which  had  been 
ruined  by  his  engines,  while  the  breaches  were  rap- 
idly repaired,  new  gates  replaced  those  that  had 
been  destroyed,  and  Sinching  seemed  suddenly  to 
regain  the  appearance  it  had  presented  three  months 
before.  Inside  the  walls  a  new  spirit  prevailed,  the 
courage  of  the  bold  commander  reanimating  his 
troops,  while  the  sentinels  on  the  ramparts  shouted 
messages  of  disdain  to  the  besieging  force. 

Indignant  at  this  violation  of  the  terms  of  the 
agreement,  Chukwoko  sent  a  flag  of  truce  to  the 


204  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

gate,  demanding  angrily  what  these  proceedings 
meant,  and  if  this  was  Changte's  way  of  keeping 
his  word. 

"  I  am  preparing  my  tomb,"  replied  the  bold  com- 
mander. "  I  propose  to  bury  myself  under  the  ruins 
of  Sinching." 

The  tomb  remained  untenanted  by  the  daring 
commandant.  The  long-delayed  relief  appeared, 
and  Chukwoko  was  obliged  to  make  a  hasty  retreat, 
with  the  loss  of  half  his  army.  It  is  safe  to  say 
that  in  the  pursuit  Changte  and  his  faithful  three 
thousand  played  a  leading  part. 


FROM  THE  SHOEMAKERS 
BENCH  TO  THE  THRONE. 

AT  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  of  the 
Christian  era  China  had  fallen  into  a  state  of  de- 
crepitude. The  second  dynasty  of  the  Tsins  was 
near  its  end.  For  a  century  and  a  half  it  had  held 
the  imperial  power,  but  now  it  had  fallen  a  prey  to 
luxury,  one  of  its  latest  emperors  dying  from  pro- 
longed drunkenness,  another  being  smothered  in  bed 
by  his  wife,  whom  he  bad  insulted  while  intoxicated. 

The  empire  which  the  founder  of  the  dynasty  had 
built  up  showed  signs  of  falling  to  pieces.  In  the 
south  the  daring  pirate  Sunghen  was  making  the 
great  rivers  the  scenes  of  bis  merciless  activity, 
spreading  terror  along  their  banks,  and  extending 
his  desolating  raids  far  over  the  surrounding  prov- 
inces. In  the  north  had  arisen  a  new  enemy,  the 
Geougen  Tartars,  whose  career  had  begun  in  the 
outbreak  of  a  hundred  rebels,  but  who  had  now  be- 
come so  powerful  that  their  chief  assumed  in  the 
year  402  the  proud  title  of  Kagan,  or  Great  Lord. 
Falling  upon  the  northern  boundaries  of  the  empire, 
these  dangerous  foes  made  daring  inroads  into  the 
realm.  As  for  the  provinces  of  the  empire,  many 
of  them  were  in  a  rebellious  mood. 

At  this  critical  period  in  Chinese  history  a  child  of 
the  people  came  forward  as  the  savior  of  his  country. 

205 


206  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

This  was  a  poor  boy  for  whom  his  parents  had  done 
little  more  than  give  him  his  name  of  Lieouyu, 
having  been  forced  by  poverty  to  desert  him  to 
the  cold  comfort  of  charity.  He  was  cared  for  by  a 
kind  woman,  as  poor  as  they,  and  as  he  grew  older 
learned  the  humble  trade  of  shoemaking,  which  he 
followed  for  some  time  as  an  occupation,  though  he 
chafed  in  spirit  at  its  wearisome  monotony.  The 
boy  had  in  him  the  seeds  of  better  things,  showing 
in  his  early  years  a  remarkable  quickness  in  learn- 
ing, and  an  energy  that  was  not  likely  to  remain 
content  with  a  humble  position. 

Seeing  that  his  only  chance  of  advancement  lay 
in  the  military  career,  and  burning  with  spirit  and 
courage,  the  ambitious  boy  soon  deserted  the  shoe- 
maker's bench  for  the  army's  ranks.  Here  he  showed 
such  valor  and  ability  that  he  rapidly  rose  to  the 
command  of  a  company,  and  was  in  time  intrusted 
with  a  small  independent  body  of  troops.  It  was 
against  the  pirate  Sunghen  that  the  young  soldier 
was  pitted,  and  during  three  years  he  vigorously  op- 
posed that  leader  in  his  devastating  raids.  In  this 
field  of  duty  he  was  repeatedly  victorious,  breaking 
the  reputation  of  the  corsair,  and  so  weakening  him 
that  his  overthrow  became  easy.  This  was  per- 
formed by  another  leader,  the  defeat  of  Sunghen 
being  so  signal  that,  despairing  of  escape,  he  leaped 
overboard  and  was  drowned. 

Lieouyu,  having  abundantly  proved  his  ability, 
was  now  rapidly  promoted,  rising  in  rank  until  he 
found  himself  in  command  of  an  army,  which  he 
handled  with  the  greatest  skill  and  success.  His 


FROM  THE  SHOEMAKER'S  BENCH  TO  THE  THRONE.     207 

final  victory  in  this  position  was  against  a  formidable 
rebel,  whom  he  fought  both  on  land  and  on  water 

'  O 

with  a  much  smaller  force,  completely  defeating 
him.  The  emperor  showed  his  sense  of  gratitude 
for  this  valuable  service  by  raising  the  shoemaker's 
boy  to  the  rank  of  commander-in-chief  of  all  the 
armies  of  the  empire. 

In  this  exalted  position  Lieouyu  displayed  the 
same  energy  and  ability  that  he  had  shown  in  hum- 
bler commands.  Marching  from  province  to  prov- 
ince and  from  victory  to  victory,  he  put  down  the 
rebels  whom  the  weakness  of  the  government  had 
permitted  to  rise  on  every  side.  He  had  not  only 
rebellious  bands,  but  disloyal  princes  of  the  empire, 
to  contend  with.  In  one  of  his  marches  it  was 
necessary  to  cross  the  great  province  of  Wei,  north 
of  the  Hoang-ho,  a  movement  to  which  Topa,  prince 
of  the  province,  refused  permission.  Lieouyu,  in- 
dignant at  this  disloyalty,  forced  the  passage  of  the 
stream,  routed  the  army  of  the  prince,  and  pursued 
his  march  without  further  opposition,  sending  one 
of  his  generals,  named  Wangchinon,  against  the  city 
of  Changnan,  the  capital  of  the  prince  of  Chin,  who 
had  hoisted  the  flag  of  rebellion  against  the  emperor. 

Lieouyu  had  chosen  his  substitute  well.  Convey- 
ing his  army  by  water  as  far  as  possible,  Wang- 
chinon, on  leaving  his  ships,  ordered  them  to  be  cast 
adrift.  To  the  soldiers  he  made  the  following  Na- 
poleonic oration : 

"  We  have  neither  supplies  nor  provisions,  and  the 
swift  waters  of  the  Weiho  bear  from  us  the  ships  in 
which  we  came.  Soldiers  of  the  empire,  only  two 


208  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

things  lie  before  us.  Let  us  beat  the  enemy,  and  we 
will  regain  a  hundredfold  all  we  have  lost,  besides 
covering  ourselves  with  glory.  If  the  enemy  beat 
us,  there  is  no  escape ;  death  will  be  the  lot  of  us  all. 
To  conquer  or  to  die, — that  is  our  destiny.  You  have 
heard ;  prepare  to  march  against  the  enemy." 

With  so  resolute  a  commander  victory  was  almost 
assured.  Changnan,  vigorously  assailed,  quickly  sur- 
rendered, and  the  captive  prince  of  Chin  was  exe- 
cuted as  a  rebel  taken  in  arms.  Lieouyu,  who  had 
been  winning  victories  elsewhere,  now  arrived,  hav- 
ing marched  in  all  haste  to  the  aid  of  his  valorous 
lieutenant.  Praising  Wangchinon  for  the  brilliancy 
of  his  achievement,  the  commander  was  about  put- 
ting his  forces  on  the  march  for  new  victorious 
deeds,  when  peremptory  orders  recalled  him  to  the 
capital,  and  his  career  of  conquest  was  for  the 
time  checked.  The  absence  of  the  strong  hand  was 
quickly  felt.  The  rebels  rose  again  in  force,  Chang- 
nan  was  lost  and  with  it  all  the  conquests  Lieouyu 
had  made,  and  the  forces  of  the  empire  were  every- 
where driven  back  in  defeat. 

Meanwhile  Lieouyu,  at  the  capital,  found  himself 
in  the  midst  of  political  complications  that  called  for 
decisive  measures.  The  weakness  of  the  emperor 
troubled  him,  while  he  felt  a. deep  resentment  at  what 
he  considered  ill  treatment  on  the  part  of  the  throne. 
He  had,  as  Prince  of  Song,  been  raised  to  the  third 
rank  among  the  princes  of  the  realm,  but  he  thought 
his  deeds  entitled  him  to  rank  among  the  first;  while 
the  success  of  the  rebels  in  the  absence  of  his  master 
had  redoubled  his  reputation  among  the  people. 


FROM  THE  SHOEMAKER'S  BENCH  TO  THE  THRONE.  209 

Ganti,  the  emperor,  was  destined  to  experience  the 
dangerous  consequences  of  raising  a  subject  to  such  a 
height  and  yet  leaving  him  below  the  rank  to  which 
he  aspired.  Lieouyu,  now  all-powerful  in  military- 
circles,  and  virtually  master  of  the  realm,  caused  the 
emperor  to  be  strangled,  and  named  his  brother 
Kongti  as  successor  to  the  throne.  But  the  ambi- 
tion of  the  shoemaker's  boy  had  not  reached  its 
summit.  This  was  but  a  provisional  step,  and  the 
throne  itself  lay  before  him  as  an  alluring  prize. 
Having  skilfully  laid  his  plans,  Lieouyu,  at  the  end 
of  two  years,  gave  the  weak  Kongti  to  understand 
that  his  reign  was  at  an  end,  and  that  he  must  step 
down  from  the  throne  which  a  stronger  than  he 
proposed  to  ascend. 

Kongti  made  no  resistance  to  this  arbitrary  de- 
mand. He  knew  that  resistance  would  be  useless, 
and  resigned  his  imperial  dignity  in  favor  of  the 
peasant  who  by  his  sword  hud  carved  his  way  to  the 
tbrone.  The  ceremony  was  an  interesting  one.  A 
broad  scaffold  was  erected  in  a  field  adjoining  the 
capital,  and  on  it  was  placed  a  gorgeously  deco- 
rated imperial  throne,  which  Kongti  occupied,  while 
Lieouyu,  attired  in  royal  garb,  stood  below.  In  the 
presence  of  the  assembled  thousands  of  Kienkang, 
the  capital,  Kongti  descended  from  the  scat  which  he 
had  so  feebly  filled,  while  his  strong  successor  seated 
himself  on  the  throne  amid  the  plaudits  of  the  ap- 
proving multitude.  In  the  presence  of  the  great 
officials  of  the  realm  Kongti  paid  homage  to  Lieouyu, 
thus  completing  a  ceremony  which  was  without 
parallel  in  the  history  of  the  Chinese  empire.  With 
14 


210  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

this  act  the  dynasty  of  the  Tsins  came  to  an  end, 
and  was  replaced  by  that  of  the  Songs,  of  which 
Lieouyu  was  the  first  and  worthiest  representative. 

Of  the  ceremony  of  investiture  the  principal 
feature  was  the  assumption  of  the  imperial  cap  or 
crown,  which  has  long  been  the  chief  mark  of  roy- 
alty worn  by  the  Chinese  emperor.  This  is  a  cap  of 
peculiar  shape,  round  in  front  and  straight  behind, 
and  ornamented  with  one  hundred  and  forty-four 
precious  stones.  From  it  hang  twelve  pendants  con- 
sisting of  strings  of  pearls,  of  which  four  are  so  ar- 
ranged as  to  hang  over  the  emperor's  eyes.  This  is 
done,  it  is  said,  in  order  that  the  emperor  may  not 
see  the  accused  who  are  brought  before  him  for 
trial. 

It  was  in  the  year  420  A.D.  that  Lieouyu  ascended 
the  throne,  assuming  with  the  imperial  dignity  the 
name  of  a  former  emperor  of  renown,  Kaotsou,  and 
naming  his  dynasty  the  Song,  from  his  princely 
title. 

As  for  the  deposed  emperor,  the  new  monarch 
had  no  thought  of  leaving  any  such  dangerous  ele- 
ment in  his  path,  and  Kongti  was  called  upon  "  to 
drink  the  waters  of  eternal  life,"  the  Chinese  eu- 
phuism for  swallowing  poison.  Kongti,  a  devoted 
Buddhist,  declined  the  fatal  draught,  on  the  ground 
that  self-murder  was  in  opposition  to  his  religious 
sentiments.  This  is  the  only  instance  in  Chinese 
history  in  which  a  deposed  ruler  refused  to  accept 
the  inevitable  fate  of  the  unfortunate.  To  quaff  the 
poisoned  cup  is  the  time-honored  way  of  getting  rid 
of  an  inconvenient  ex-monarch.  This  refusal  of  the 


FROM  THE  SHOEMAKER'S  BENCH  TO  THE  THRONE.  211 

deposed  emperor  led  to  sterner  measures,  and  he  was 
murdered  by  the  guard  which  had  been  placed  over 
him  in  his  palace. 

Lieouyu  was  not  destined  long  to  occupy  the 
throne  which  he  had  thus  secured.  He  was  already 
growing  old,  and  a  short  reign  of  three  years  ended 
his  career.  As  a  monarch  and  a  man  alike  he  dis- 
played sterling  and  admirable  qualities.  His  cour- 
age onHhe  field  of  battle,  his  frugality  and  earnest 
devotion  to  duty  in  every  position  which  he  reached, 
won  him  the  widest  commendation,  while  he  was 
still  more  esteemed  by  his  subjects  for  his  kindness 
and  devotion  to  the  foster-mother  who  had  nourished 
him  when  deserted  by  his  own  parents,  and  who  had 
the  remarkable  fortune  of  seeing  the  poor  child  who 
had  been  abandoned  to  her  charitable  care  seated  on 
the  imperial  throne  of  the  realm. 


THREE  NOTABLE  WOMEN. 

IN  the  year  503  began  a  long  war  between  the 
princes  of  Wei  and  the  emperors  of  China,  which 
continued  for  nearly  half  a  century.  Of  this  pro- 
tracted contest  we  have  only  three  incidents  to  re- 
late, in  which,  within  a  few  years,  three  heroines 
rose  to  prominence  and  in  various  ways  showed  an 
ability  surpassing  that  of  the  men  of  their  age.  It 
is  the  story  of  these  three  women  that  we  propose 
to  tell. 

Chanyang,  a  stronghold  of  Wei,  had  been  placed 
in  charge  of  Ginching,  one  of  the  ablest  soldiers  of 
that  kingdom.  But  the  exigencies  of  the  war  obliged 
that  officer  to  make  an  excursion  beyond  its  walls, 
taking  with  him  the  main  body  of  the  garrison,  and 
leaving  the  place  very  weakly  defended.  Taking 
advantage  of  this  opportunity,  one  of  the  Chinese 
generals  marched  quickly  upon  the  weakened  strong- 
hold, surrounded  it  with  a  large  army,  and  made  so 
rapid  and  vigorous  an  assault  that  all  the  outer  de- 
fences fell  into  his  hands  without  a  blow  in  their 
defence. 

At  this  perilous  juncture,  when  the  place  was 
almost  in  the  hands  of  its  foes,  and  the  depressed 
garrison  was  ready  to  yield,  Mongchi,  the  wife  of 
the  absent  commander,  appeared  upon  the  ramparts, 
called  upon  their  defenders  to  make  a  bold  and  reso- 
212 


THREE   NOTABLE  WOMEN.  213 

lute  resistance  to  the  enemy,  and  by  her  courage 
and  animation  put  new  spirit  into  the  troops.  In- 
spired by  her,  they  bravely  resisted  the  further  ad- 
vance of  the  assailants  and  held  the  walls,  which, 
but  for  the  valor  of  the  heroine,  must  inevitably 
have  been  lost. 

Having  thus  checked  the  first  onslaught  of  the 
enemy,  Mongchi  went  vigorously  to  work.  The  in- 
habitants of  the  phice  were  armed  and  sent  to  rein- 
force the  garrison,  the  defences  of  the  gate  were 
strengthened,  and  by  promises  of  reward  as  well  as 
by  her  presence  and  inspiriting  appeals  the  brave 
woman  stirred  up  the  defenders  to  such  vigorous  re- 
sistance that  the  imperial  forces  were  on  every  side 
repelled,  and  in  the  end  were  forced  to  abandon  the 
prize  which  they  had  deemed  safely  their  own.  Not 
till  after  Chanyang  was  saved  did  Ginching  return 
from  an  important  victory  he  had  won  in  the  field, 
to  learn  that  his  brave  wife  had  gained  as  signal  a 
success  in  his  absence. 

The  second  woman  whom  we  shall  name  was 
Houchi,  wife  of  the  king  of  Wei,  whose  husband 
came  to  the  throne  in  515,  but  became  a  mere  tool 
in  the  hands  of  his  able  and  ambitious  wife.  After 
a  short  period  Houchi  was  so  bold  as  to  force  her 
husband  to  vacate  the  throne,  naming  her  infant  son 
as  king  in  his  place,  but  exercising  all  the  power  of 
the  realm  herself.  She  went  so  far  as  to  declare  war 
against  the  empire,  though  the  contest  that  followed 
was  marked  by  continual  disaster  to  her  troops,  ex- 
cept in  one  notable  instance. 

As  in  the  case  above  cited,  so  in  this  war  a  strong- 


214  HISTORICAL  TALES. 

hold  was  successfully  held  by  a  woman.  This  place 
was  Tsetong,  whose  commandant  was  absent,  leaving 
the  command  to  his  wife  Lieouchi,  a  woman  of  the 
highest  courage  and  readiness  in  an  emergency. 
As  before,  the  imperial  troops  took  advantage  of 
the  occasion,  and  quickly  invested  the  town,  while 
Lieouchi,  with  a  valor  worthy  of  a  soldier's  wife, 
made  rapid  preparations  for  defending  it  to  the  last 
extremity. 

Her  decisive  resolution  was  shown  in  an  instance 
that  must  have  redoubled  the  courage  of  her  men. 
Discovering,  after  the  siege  had  gone  on  for  several 
days,  that  one  of  the  officers  of  her  small  force  was 
playing  the  traitor  by  corresponding  with  the  enemy, 
she  called  a  general  council  of  the  officers,  with  the 
ostensible  purpose  of  deliberating  on  the  manage- 
ment of  the  defence.  The  traitor  attended  the 
council,  not  dreaming  that  his  proposed  treason  was 
suspected.  He  was  thunderstruck  when  Lieouchi 
vehemently  accused  him  before  his  fellow-officers  of 
the  crime,  showing  such  knowledge  of  his  purpose 
that  he  was  forced  to  admit  the  justice  of  the  charge. 
The  energetic  woman  wasted  no  time  in  this  critical 
state  of  affairs,  but,  drawing  her  sword,  severed  the 
head  of  the  traitor  from  his  body  with  one  vigorous 
blow.  This  act  put  an  end  to  all  thoughts  of  treason 
in  the  garrison  of  Tsetong. 

The  courage  of  Lieouchi  was  not  greater  than  her 
judgment  and  decision  in  an  emergency.  There  was 
but  a  single  well  to  supply  the  garrison  with  water, 
and  this  the  enemy  succeeded  in  cutting  off.  The 
ready  wit  of  the  woman  overcame  this  serious  loss. 


THREE   NOTABLE   WOMEN.  215 

It  was  the  rainy  season,  and  she  succeeded  in  col- 
lecting a  considerable  supply  of  rain-water  in  vases, 
while  linen  and  the  clothes  of  the  soldiers  were  also 
utilized  as  water-catching  devices.  In  the  end  the 
imperial  forces,  baffled  in  their  every  effort  by  this 
heroic  woman,  abandoned  the  siege  in  disgust. 

As  for  Houchi,  the  ruler  of  Wei,  her  ability  was 
of  a  different  kind,  yet  in  her  ambitious  designs  she 
displayed  unusual  powers.  Deposed  and  imprisoned 
ou  account  of  the  failure  of  the  war,  she  soon  over- 
threw her  enemies  and  rose  to  the  head  of  affairs 
again,  and  for  several  years  continued  to  wage  war 
with  the  emperor.  But  the  war  went  against  her, 
and  trouble  arose  within  her  kingdom.  Here  and 
there  were  movements  of  rebellion,  and  the  generals 
of  the  realm  were  at  daggers'  points  to  supplant  one 
another. 

Amid  these  distractions  the  queen  balanced  her- 
self with  marked  skill,  playing  off  one  enemy 
against  another,  but  her  position  daily  grew  more 
insecure.  Her  power  was  brought  to  an  end  by  her 
final  act,  which  was  to  depose  her  son  and  place  her- 
self in  sole  control  of  the  realm.  Erchu  Jong,  a 
general  of  ability  and  decision,  now  rose  in  revolt, 
marched  on  the  capital,  made  Houchi  his  prisoner, 
and  in  the  same  moment  ended  her  reign  and  her 
life  by  drowning  her  in  the  waters  of  the  Hoang-ho. 
Then,  gathering  tAvo  thousand  of  the  notables  of  the 
city,  her  aids  and  supporters,  on  a  plain  outside  the 
walls,  he  ordered  his  cavalry  to  kill  them  all.  Other 
steps  of  the  same  stern  character  were  taken  by 
this  fierce  soldier,  whose  power  grew  so  great  as  to 


216  HISTORICAL  TALI8. 

excite  official  dread.  A  general  sent  against  him  by 
Vouti,  the  emperor,  who  boasted  of  having  gained 
forty-seven  victories,  was  completely  defeated,  and 
all  the  results  of  his  campaign  were  lost.  Erchu 
Jong  now  formed  the  design  of  reuniting  the  empire 
and  driving  Youti  from  the  throne,  but  his  enemies 
brought  this  ambitious  scheme  to  an  end.  Invited 
to  the  palace  on  some  pretence,  he  was  cut  down  in 
the  audience-hall,  the  Prince  of  Wei,  whom  he  had 
placed  on  the  throne,  giving  his  consent  to  this  act 
of  treachery.  Thus  was  the  death  of  Houchi  quickly 
avenged. 


THE  REIGN  OF  TAITSONG    THE 
GREAT. 

THE  history  of  China  differs  remarkably  from 
that  of  Japan  in  one  particular.  In  the  latter  a 
single  dynasty  of  emperors  has,  from  the  beginning, 
held  the  throne.  In  the  former  there  have  been 
numerous  dynasties,  most  of  them  brief,  some  long 
extended.  In  Japan  the  emperors  lived  in  retire- 
ment, and  it  was  the  dynasties  of  shoguns  or  gen- 
erals that  suffered  change.  In  China  the  emperors 
kept  at  the  head  of  affairs,  and  were  exposed  to  all 
the  perils  due  to  error  or  weakness  in  the  ruler  and 
ambition  in  powerful  subjects. 

The  fall  of  the  great  dynasty  of  the  Hans  left 
the  way  clear  for  several  brief  dynasties,  of  whose 
emperors  Yangti,  the  last,  was  a  man  of  great  public 
spirit  and  magnificent  ideas.  His  public  spirit  was 
expressed  in  a  series  of  great  canals,  which  extended 
throughout  the  empire,  their  total  length  being,  it 
is  said,  more  than  sixteen  hundred  leagues.  Several 
of  these  great  works  still  remain.  His  magnificence 
of  idea  was  shown  in  the  grand  adornments  of  Lo- 
yang,  his  capital,  where  two  million  of  men  were 
employed  upon  his  palace  and  the  public  buildings. 

Yangti's  son  was  deposed  by  Liyuen,  Prince  of 
Tang,  and  a  new  dynasty,  that  of  the  Tang  em- 
perors, was  formed,  which  continued  for  several  cen- 

217 


218  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

turies  at  the  head  of  affairs.  The  new  emperor 
assumed  the  name  of  Kaotsou,  made  famous  by  the 
first  emperor  of  the  Hans.  But  the  glory  of  his 
reign  belongs  to  his  son,  not  to  himself,  and  it  is 
with  this  son,  Lichimin  by  name,  that  we  have  now 
to  do. 

It  had  been  the  custom  of  the  founders  of  dynas- 
ties to  begin  their  reign  by  the  destruction  of  the 
families  of  their  deposed  rivals.  The  new  emperor 
showed  himself  more  merciful,  by  pensioning  instead 
of  destroying  his  unfortunate  foes.  His  only  ven- 
geance was  upon  inanimate  objects.  Lichimin,  on 
capturing  Loyang,  ordered  the  great  palace  of 
Yangti,  the  most  magnificent  building  in  the  em- 
pire, to  be  set  on  fire  and  destroyed.  "  So  much 
pomp  and  pride,"  he  said,  "  could  not  be  sustained, 
and  ought  to  lead  to  the  ruin  of  those  who  consid- 
ered their  own  love  of  luxury  rather  than  the  needs 
of  the  people." 

While  his  father  occupied  the  throne  the  valiant 
Lichimin  went  forth  "  conquering  and  to  conquer." 
Wherever  he  went  victory  went  with  him.  The  foes 
of  the  Tangs  were  put  down  in  quick  succession.  A 
great  Tartar  confederacy  was  overthrown  by  the 
vigorous  young  general.  Four  years  sufficed  for  the 
work.  At  the  end  of  that  time  Lichimin  was  able 
to  announce  that  he  had  vanquished  all  the  enemies 
of  the  empire,  both  at  home  and  abroad. 

His  victories  were  followed  by  a  triumph  which 
resembled  those  given  to  the  great  generals  of 
ancient  Rome.  The  city  of  Singan  was  the  capital 
of  the  new  dynasty,  and  into  it  Lichimin  rode  at 


THE   REIQN   OF   TAITSONQ  THE   GREAT.  219 

the  head  of  his  victorious  legions,  dressed  in  costly 
armor  and  wearing  a  breastplate  of  gold.  His  per- 
sonal escort  consisted  of  ten  thousand  picked  horse- 
men, among  them  a  regiment  of  cuirassiers  dressed 
in  black  tiger-skins,  who  were  particularly  attached 
to  his  person  and  the  most  distinguished  for  valor  of 
all  his  troops.  Thirty  thousand  cuirassiers  followed, 
with  a  captive  king  of  the  Tartars  in  their  midst. 
Other  captives  testified  to  the  glory  of  the  con- 
queror, being  the  vanquished  defenders  of  conquered 
cities,  whose  abundant  spoils  were  displayed  in  the 
train. 

Into  the  city  wound  the  long  array,  through  mul- 
titudes of  applauding  spectators,  Lichimin  proceed- 
ing in  state  to  the  Hall  of  his  Ancestors,  where  he 
paid  obeisance  to  the  shades  of  his  progenitors  and 
detailed  to  them  the  story  of  his  victorious  career. 
Unlike  the  more  cruel  Romans,  who  massacred  the 
captives  they  had  shown  in  their  triumphs,  Lichimin 
pardoned  his.  The  principal  officers  of  the  army 
were  richly  rewarded,  and  the  affair  ended  in  a  great 
banquet,  at  which  the  emperor  gave  his  valiant  son 
the  highest  praise  for  his  services  to  the  country. 
The  rejoicings  ended  in  a  proclamation  of  general 
amnesty  and  a  reduction  of  the  taxes,  so  that  all 
might  benefit  by  the  imperial  triumph. 

Yet  there  was  poison  in  the  victor's  cup  of  joy. 
His  brothers  envied  him,  intrigued  against  him,  and 
succeeded  in  instilling  such  doubts  in  the  emperor's 
mind  that  Lichimin  fell  into  disgrace  and  was 
strongly  tempted  to  leave  the  court.  The  intrigues, 
•which  had  first  dealt  with  his  good  name,  were  next 


220  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

directed  against  his  life,  a  plot  to  murder  him  being 
devised.  Fortunately  it  was  discovered  in  time,  and 
the  death  they  had  planned  for  their  brother  fell 
upon  themselves,  leaving  him  the  emperor's  unques- 
tioned heir.  The  same  year  (626  A.D.)  the  emperor 
retired  to  private  life  and  raised  his  great  son  to  the 
throne. 

Lichirain,  as  emperor,  assumed  the  name  of  Tai- 
tsong,  a  title  which  he  made  so  famous  that  he  fully 
earned  the  designation  of  Taitsong  the  Great.  The 
empire  was  surrounded  with  enemies,  the  nomads 
of  the  north,  extending  from  Corea  to  Kokonor, 
and  the  warlike  people  of  the  south,  from  Thibet  to 
Tonquin.  During  the  remainder  of  his  life  he  was 
engaged  in  incessant  conflict  with  these  stinging 
wasps,  whose  onslaughts  left  him  no  peace. 

Scarcely  was  he  settled  on  the  throne  when  the 
Tartar  invasions  began.  Their  raids  were  repelled, 
but  they  instigated  Taitsong  to  an  important  measure. 
It  had  always  been  evident  that  the  Chinese  troops, 
hitherto  little  more  than  a  raw  militia,  were  unable 
to  cope  with  the  sons  of  the  desert,  and  the  shrewd 
emperor  set  himself  to  organize  an  army  that  should 
be  a  match  in  discipline  and  effectiveness  for  any 
of  its  foes.  The  new  army  embraced  three  ranks, 
each  corps  of  the  superior  rank  consisting  of  twelve 
hundred,  and  those  of  the  others  respectively  of  one 
thousand  and  eight  hundred  men.  The  total  force 
thus  organized  approached  nine  hundred  thousand 
men,  of  whom  a  large  portion  were  used  for  frontier 
duty.  These  troops  were  carefully  trained  in  the 
use  of  the  bow  and  the  pike,  Taitsong  himself  in- 


THE   REIGN   OF   TAITSONQ   THE   GREAT.  221 

specting  a  portion  of  them  daily.  This  innovation 
roused  bitter  opposition  from  the  literati,  whose 
books  told  them  that  former  emperors  did  not  en- 
gage in  such  work.  But  Taitsong,  on  the  theory 
that  in  time  of  peace  we  should  prepare  for  war, 
went  on  with  his  reforms  regardless  of  their  cited 
precedents. 

Taitsong's  new  army  was  soon  put  to  the  proof. 
The  Tartars  were  in  arms  again,  a  powerful  confed- 
eracy had  been  formed,  and  China  was  in  danger. 
Marching  into  the  desert  with  his  disciplined  forces, 
he  soon  had  his  enemies  in  flight,  forced  several  of 
the  leading  khans  to  submit,  and  spread  the  dread 
of  his  arms  widely  among  the  tribes.  To  his  title 
of  Emperor  of  China  ho  now  added  that  of  Khan  of 
the  Tartars,  and  claimed  as  subjects  all  the  nomads 
of  the  desert. 

The  next  great  war  was  with  Thibet,  whose  tribes 
had  become  subdued  under  one  chief,  called  the  San- 
pou,  or  "  brave  lord."  This  potentate,  who  deemed 
himself  the  peer  of  his  powerful  neighbor,  demanded 
a  Chinese  princess  in  marriage,  and  when  this  favor 
was  refused  he  invaded  a  province  of  the  empire. 
Taitsong  at  once  put  his  army  in  motion,  defeated 
the  forces  of  Thibet,  and  made  the  Sanpou  acknow- 
ledge himself  a  vassal  of  China  and  pay  a  fine  of 
five  thousand  ounces  of  gold.  Then  the  princess  he 
had  sought  to  win  by  force  was  granted  to  him  as  a 
favor.  The  Sanpou  gave  up  his  barbarian  ways, 
adopted  Chinese  customs,  and  built  a  walled  city  for 
his  princess  wife. 

The  next  act  of  the  great  emperor  was  to  bring 


222  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

Eastern  Turkestan,  conquered  by  Panchow  more 
than  five  centuries  before,  under  Chinese  rule.  This 
country  had  admitted  the  supremacy  of  the  emperor, 
but  not  until  now  did  it  become  part  of  the  empire, 
which  it  has  since  remained. 

The  last  warlike  act  of  Taitsong's  life  was  the 
invasion  of  Corea.  Here  he  won  various  great 
battles,  but  was  at  length  baffled  in  the  siege  of  a 
Corean  town,  and  lost  all  he  had  gained,  the  gallant 
commandant  of  the  town  wishing  the  troops  "a 
pleasant  journey"  as  they  began  their  retreat. 

Taitsong  did  not  confine  himself  to  deeds  of  war. 
Under  the  advice  of  his  wife  Changsungchi,  a  woman 
as  great  in  her  way  as  he  was  in  his,  and  celebrated 
for  her  domestic  virtues,  talent,  and  good  sense,  he 
founded  the  Imperial  Library  and  the  great  Col- 
lege, decreased  the  taxes,  and  regulated  the  finances 
of  the  realm.  The  death  of  this  good  woman  was  to 
him  a  severe  blow,  and  he  ordered  that  she  should 
receive  the  funeral  honors  due  to  an  emperor. 

His  last  days  were  spent  in  drawing  up  for  the 
instruction  of  his  son  a  great  work  on  the  art  of 
government,  known  as  the  Golden  Mirror.  He  died 
in  649  A.D.,  having  proved  himself  one  of  the  ablest 
monarchs,  alike  in  war  and  in  peace,  that  ever  sat 
on  the  Chinese  throne. 


A  FEMALE  RICHELIEU. 

FIVE  years  after  the  death  of  the  great  Taitsong, 
his  son  Kaotsong,  Emperor  of  China,  fell  in  love 
with  a  woman,  a  fact  in  no  sense  new  in  the  annals 
of  mankind,  but  one  which  was  in  this  case  des- 
tined to  exert  a  striking  influence  on  the  history  of 
an  empire.  This  woman  was  the  princess  Wou,  a 
youthful  widow  of  the  late  emperor,  and  now  an  in- 
mate of  a  Buddhist  convent.  So  strong  was  the 
passion  of  the  young  ruler  for  the  princess  that  he 
set  aside  the  opposition  of  his  ministers,  divorced 
his  lawful  empress,  and,  in  the  year  655,  made  his 
new  love  his  consort  on  the  throne. 

It  was  a  momentous  act.  So  great  was  the  as- 
cendency of  the  woman  over  her  lover  that  from 
the  start  he  became  a  mere  tool  in  her  hands  and 
ruled  the  empire  in  accordance  with  her  views.  Her 
first  act  was  one  that  showed  her  merciless  strength 
of  purpose.  Fearing  that  the  warm  love  of  Kao- 
tsong might  in  time  grow  cold,  and  that  the  deposed 
empress  or  some  other  of  the  palace  women  might 
return  to  favor,  she  determined  to  sweep  these  pos- 
sible perils  from  her  path.  At  her  command  the 
unhappy  queens  were  drowned  in  a  vase  of  wine, 
their  hands  and  feet  being  first  cut  off, — seemingly 
an  unnecessary  cruelty. 

This  merciless  act  of  the  empress,  and  her  domi- 

223 


224  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

nant  influence  in  the  government,  soon  made  her 
many  enemies.  But  they  were  to  find  that  she  was 
a  dangerous  person  to  plot  against.  Her  son  was 
proclaimed  heir  to  the  throne,  and  the  opposing  offi- 
cials soon  found  themselves  in  prison,  where  secret 
death  quickly  ended  their  hostility. 

Wou  now  sought  to  make  herself  supreme.  At 
first  assisting  the  emperor  in  the  labors  of  govern- 
ment, she  soon  showed  a  quickness  of  apprehension, 
a  ready  wit  in  emergencies,  and  a  tact  in  dealing 
with  difficult  questions  that  rendered  her  aid  indis- 
pensable. Step  by  step  the  emperor  yielded  his 
power  to  her  more  skilful  hands,  until  he  retained 
for  himself  only  the  rank  while  she  held  all  the 
authority  of  the  imperial  office. 

Under  her  control  China  retained  abroad  the 
proud  position  which  Taitsong  had  won.  For  years 
war  went  on  with  Corea,  who  called  in  the  Japanese 
to  their  aid.  But  the  allies  were  defeated  and  four 
hundred  of  the  war-junks  of  Japan  given  to  the 
flames.  The  desert  nomads  remained  subdued,  and 
in  Central  Asia  the  power  of  China  was  firmly 
maintained.  Now  was  the  era  of  a  mighty  commo- 
tion in  Southern  Asia  and  the  countries  of  the  Medi- 
terranean. Arabia  was  sending  forth  its  hosts,  the 
sword  and  the  Koran  in  hand,  to  conquer  the  world 
and  convert  it  to  the  Mohammedan  faith.  Persia 
was  in  imminent  peril,  and  sent  envoys  to  China 
begging  for  aid.  But  the  shrewd  empress  had  no 
thought  of  involving  her  dominions  in  war  with 
these  devastating  hordes,  and  sent  word  that  Persia 
was  too  far  away  for  an  army  to  be  despatched  to 


A   FEMALE   RICHELIEU.  225 

its  rescue.  Envoys  also  came  from  India,  but  China 
kept  carefully  free  from  hostilities  with  the  con- 
querors of  the  south. 

Kaotsong  died  in  683,  after  occupying  the  throne 
for  thirty-three  years.  His  death  threatened  the 
position  of  the  empress,  the  power  behind  the  throne. 
But  she  proved  herself  fully  equal  to  the  occasion, 
and  made  herself  more  truly  the  ruler  of  China  than 
before.  Chongtsong,  son  of  the  late  emperor,  was 
proclaimed,  but  a  few  days  ended  his  reign.  A 
decree  passed  by  him  in  lavor  of  bis  wife's  family 
roused  Wou  to  action,  and  she  succeeded  in  deposing 
him  and  banishing  him  and  his  family,  taking  up 
again  the  supreme  power  of  which  she  had  been  so 
brief  a  time  deprived. 

She  now  carried  matters  with  a  high  hand.  A 
nominal  emperor  was  chosen,  but  the  rule  was  hers. 
She  handled  all  the  public  business,  disposed  of  the 
offices  of  state,  erected  temples  to  her  ancestors,  wore 
the  robes  which  by  law  could  be  worn  only  by  an 
emperor,  and  performed  the  imperial  function  of 
sacrificing  to  Heaven,  the  supreme  deity  of  the 
Chinese.  For  once  in  its  history  China  had  an  actual 
empress,  and  one  of  an  ability  and  a  power  of  main- 
taining the  dignity  of  the  throne  which  none  of  its 
emperors  have  surpassed. 

Her  usurpation  brought  her  a  host  of  enemies. 
It  set  aside  all  the  precedents  of  the  empire,  and  that 
a  woman  should  reign  directly,  instead  of  indirectly, 
stirred  the  spirit  of  conservatism  to  its  depths. 
Wou  made  no  effort  to  conciliate  her  foes.  She 
went  so  far  as  to  change  the  name  of  the  dynasty 

15 


226  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

and  to  place  members  of  her  own  family  in  the  great 
offices  of  the  realm.  Rebellious  risings  followed; 
plots  for  her  assassination  were  formed  ;  but  her  vig- 
ilance was  too  great,  her  measures  were  too  prompt, 
for  treason  to  succeed.  No  matter  how  great  the 
rank  or  how  eminent  the  record  of  a  conspirator, 
death  ended  his  career  as  soon  as  her  suspicions  were 
aroused.  The  empire  was  filled  with  her  spies,  who 
became  so  numerous  as  largely  to  defeat  their  pur- 
pose, by  bringing  false  accusations  before  the  throne. 
The  ready  queen  settled  this  difficulty  by  an  edict 
threatening  with  death  any  one  who  falsely  accused 
a  citizen  of  the  realm.  The  improbable  story  is  told 
that  in  a  single  day  a  thousand  charges  were  brought 
of  which  eight  hundred  and  fifty  proved  to  be  false, 
those  who  brought  them  being  at  once  sent  to  the 
block.  Execution  in  the  streets  of  Singan,  the  capi- 
tal, was  her  favorite  mode  of  punishment,  and  great 
nobles  and  ministers  died  by  the  axe  before  the  eyes 
of  curious  multitudes. 

A  Richelieu  in  her  treatment  of  her  enemies,  she 
displayed  the  ability  of  a  Richelieu  in  her  control 
of  the  government.  Her  rule  was  a  wise  one,  and 
the  dignity  of  the  nation  never  suffered  in  her  hands. 
The  surrounding  peoples  showed  respect  for  her 
power,  and  her  subjects  could  not  but  admit  that 
they  were  well  and  ably  ruled.  And,  that  they 
might  the  better  understand  this,  she  had  books 
written  and  distributed  describing  her  eminent  ser- 
vices to  the  state,  while  the  priesthood  laid  before 
the  people  the  story  of  her  many  virtues.  Thus  for 
more  than  twenty  years  after  the  death  of  Kaotsong 


A   FEMALE   RICHELIEU.  227 

the  great  empress  continued  to  hold  her  own  in 
peace  and  in  war. 

In  her  later  years  wars  broke  out,  which  were 
handled  by  her  with  promptness  and  success.  But 
age  now  weighed  upon  her.  In  704,  when  she  was 
more  than  eighty  years  old,  she  became  so  ill  that 
for  several  months  she  was  unable  to  receive  her 
ministers.  This  weakening  of  the  strong  hand  was 
taken  advantage  of  by  her  enemies.  Murdering  her 
principal  relatives,  they  broke  into  the  palace  and 
demanded  her  abdication.  Unable  to  resist,  she, 
with  unabated  dignity  of  mien,  handed  to  them  the 
imperial  seal  and  the  other  emblems  of  power.  In 
the  following  year  sho  died.  For  more  than  forty 
years  she  had  been  the  supreme  ruler  of  China,  and 
held  her  great  office  with  a  strength  and  dignity 
which  may  well  be  called  superb. 


THE  TARTARS  AND  GENGHIS 
KHAN. 

IN  the  northern  section  of  the  vast  Mongolian 
plateau,  that  immense  outreach  of  pasture-lands 
which  forms  the  great  abiding-place  of  the  shepherd 
tribes  of  the  earth,  there  long  dwelt  a  warlike  race 
which  was  destined  to  play  an  extraordinary  part 
in  the  world's  history.  The  original  home  of  this 
people,  who  at  an  early  date  had  won  the  significant 
name  of  Mongol,  or  "  the  brave,"  was  in  the  strip  of 
territory  between  the  Onon  and  the  Kerulon,  tribu- 
taries of  the  upper  Amur  Kiver,  the  great  water  ar- 
tery of  East  Siberia.  In  this  retreat,  strongly  pro- 
tected from  attack,  and  with  sufficient  herbage  for 
their  flocks,  the  Mongols  may  have  dwelt  for  ages 
unknown  to  history.  We  hear  of  them  first  in  the 
ninth  century,  when  they  appeared  as  a  section  of 
the  great  horde  of  the  Shiwei,  attracting  attention 
by  their  great  strength  and  extraordinary  courage, 
characteristics  to  which  they  owed  their  distinctive 
title.  For  two  or  three  centuries  they  were  among 
the  tribes  that  paid  tribute  to  China,  and  there  was 
nothing  in  their  career  of  special  interest.  Then 
they  suddenly  broke  into  startling  prominence,  and 
sent  a  wave  of  terror  over  the  whole  civilized  world. 

The  history  of  China  is  so  closely  connected  with 
that  of  the  nomad  tribes  that  one  cannot  be  given 
228 


THE   TARTARS   AND   GENGHIS   KHAN.  229 

without  the  other,  and  before  telling  the  story  of 
the  Mongols  u  brief  outline  of  the  history  of  these 
tribes  is  desirable.  China  is  on  three  sides  abun- 
dantly defended  from  invasion,  by  the  ocean  on 
the  east,  and  by  mountains  and  desert  on  the  south 
and  west.  Its  only  vulnerable  quarter  is  in  the 
north,  where  it  joins  on  to  the  vast  region  of  the 
steppes,  a  country  whose  scarcity  of  rain  unfits  it 
for  agriculture,  hut  which  has  sufficient  herbage  for 
the  pasturage  of  immense  herds.  Here  from  time 
immemorial  has  dwelt  a  race  of  hardy  wanderers, 
driving  its  flocks  of  sheep,  cattle,  and  horses  from 
pasture  to  pasture,  and  at  frequent  intervals  de- 
scending in  plundering  raids  upon  the  settled  peoples 
of  the  south. 

China  in  particular  became  the  prey  of  these  war- 
like horsemen.  We  hear  little  of  them  in  the  early 
days,  when  the  Chinese  realm  was  narrow  and  the 
original  barbarians  possessed  most  of  the  land.  We 
hear  much  of  them  in  later  days,  when  the  empire 
had  widened  and  grown  rich  and  prosperous,  offer- 
ing an  alluring  prize  to  the  restless  and  daring  in- 
habitants of  the  steppes. 

The  stories  we  have  already  told  have  much  to  say 
of  the  relations  of  China  with  the  nomads  of  the 
north.  Against  these  foes  the  Great  Wall  was  built 
in  vain,  and  ages  of  warfare  passed  before  the  armies 
of  China  succeeded  in  subduing  and  making  tribu- 
tary the  people  of  the  steppes.  We  first  hear  of 
Tartar  raids  upon  China  in  the  reign  of  the  emperor 
Muh  Wang,  in  the  tenth  century  B.C.  As  time  went 
on,  the  tribes  combined  and  fell  in  steadily  greater 


230  HISTORICAL  TALES. 

numbers  upon  the  southern  realm.  Of  these  alli- 
ances of  tribes  the  first  known  was  named  by  Chinese 
historians  the  Heung  Nou,  or  "detestable  slaves." 
Under  its  chiefs,  called  the  Tanjous,  it  became  very 
formidable,  and  for  a  thousand  years  continued  a 
thorn  in  the  side  of  the  Chinese  empire. 

The  Tanjous  were  dominant  in  the  steppes  for 
some  three  hundred  years,  when  they  were  over- 
thrown by  a  revolt  of  the  tribes,  and  were  succeeded 
by  the  Sienpi,  who  under  their  chiefs,  the  Topas,  or 
"  masters  of  the  earth,"  grew  formidable,  conquering 
the  northern  provinces  of  China,  which  they  held  for 
a  century  and  a  half.  Finally  a  slave  of  one  of  the 
Topa  chiefs,  at  the  head  of  a  hundred  outlaws,  broke 
into  revolt,  and  gathered  adherents  until  the  power 
of  the  Sienpi  was  broken,  and  a  new  tribe,  the  Geou- 
gen,  became  predominant.  Its  leader,  Cehelun  by 
name,  extended  his  power  over  a  vast  territory,  as- 
suming the  title  of  Kagan,  or  Khan. 

The  next  revolt  took  place  in  the  sixth  century 
A.D.,  when  a  tribe  of  slaves,  which  worked  the  iron 
forges  of  the  Altai  Mountains  for  the  Great  Khan, 
rebelled  and  won  its  freedom.  Growing  rapidly,  it 
almost  exterminated  the  Geougen  in  a  great  battle, 
and  became  dominant  over  the  clans.  Thus  first 
came  into  history  the  great  tribe  of  the  Turks,  whose 
later  history  was  destined  to  be  so  momentous.  The 
dominion  of  the  Khan  of  the  Turks  grew  so  enor- 
mously that  in  time  it  extended  from  Central  Siberia 
on  the  north  to  Persia  on  the  south,  while  he  made 
his  power  felt  by  China  on  the  east  and  by  Rome  on 
the  west.  Ambassadors  from  the  Khan  reached  Con- 


THE   TARTARS  AND   GENGHIS   KHAN.  231 

stantinople,  and  Roman  envoys  were  received  in  re- 
turn in  his  tent  at  the  foot  of  the  Altai  range. 

The  Turks  were  the  first  of  the  nomad  organiza- 
tions who  made  their  power  felt  throughout  the 
civilized  world.  On  the  eastern  steppes  other  tribes 
came  into  prominence.  The  Khitans  were  supreme 
in  this  region  from  900  to  1100  A.D.,  and  made  serious 
inroads  into  China.  They  were  followed  by  the 
Kins,  or  Golden  Tartars,  a  tribe  of  Manchu  origin, 
who  proved  a  terrible  foe,  conquering  and  long  hold- 
ing a  large  section  of  Northern  China.  Then  came 
the  Mongols,  the  most  powerful  and  terrible  of  all, 
who  overthrew  the  Kins  and  became  sole  lords  of 
the  empire  of  the  steppes.  It  is  with  the  remark- 
able career  of  this  Mongol  tribe  that  we  are  here 
particularly  concerned. 

The  first  of  the  Mongol  chiefs  whose  name  is  pre- 
served was  Budantsar,  who  conquered  the  district 
between  the  Onon  and  the  Kerulon,  the  earliest 
known  home  of  the  Mongol  race.  His  descendants 
ruled  over  the  clan  until  about  the  year  1135, 
when  the  first  step  of  rebellion  of  the  Mongols  from 
the  power  of  the  Kins  took  place.  This  was  under 
Kabul,  a  descendant  of  Budantsar.  The  war  with 
the  Kins  continued  under  later  leaders,  of  whom 
Yissugei  captured  a  powerful  Tartar  chief  named 
Temujin.  On  returning  home  he  learned  that  his 
wife  had  given  birth  to  a  son,  to  whom  he  gave  his 
captive's  name  of  Temujin.  This  child,  born  prob- 
ably in  1162  A.D.,  afterwards  became  the  famous  con- 
queror Genghis  Khan. 

The  birthplace  of  the   future   hero  was  on  the 


232  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

banks  of  the  Onon.  His  father,  chief  over  forty 
thousand  families,  died  when  he  was  still  young,  and 
many  of  the  tribesmen,  refusing  to  be  governed  hy 
a  boy,  broke  loose  from  his  authority.  His  mother, 
a  woman  worthy  of  her  race,  succeeded  in  bringing 
numbers  of  them  back  to  their  allegiance,  but  the 
young  chief  found  himself  at  the  head  of  but  half 
the  warriors  who  had  followed  his  father  to  vic- 
tory. 

The  enemies  of  Temujin  little  knew  with  whom 
they  had  to  deal.  At  first  misfortune  pursued  the 
youth,  and  he  was  at  length  taken  prisoner  by  his 
enemies,  who  treated  him  with  great  indignity.  He 
soon  escaped,  however,  and  rallied  bis  broken  forces, 
shrewdly  baffling  his  foes,  who  sought  to  recapture 
him  by  a  treacherous  invitation  to  a  feast.  In  the 
end  they  attacked  Temujin  in  his  own  country, 
where,  standing  on  the  defensive,  he  defeated  them 
with  great  loss.  This  victory  brought  the  young 
chief  wide  renown,  and  so  many  allies  gathered 
under  his  banner  that  he  became  a  power  in  the 
steppes.  "  Temujin  alone  is  generous  and  worthy  of 
ruling  a  great  people,"  was  the  decision  in  the  tents 
of  the  wandering  tribes. 

The  subsequent  career  of  the  Mongol  chief  was 
one  of  striking  vicissitudes.  His  power  grew  until 
the  question  of  the  dominion  of  the  steppes  rested 
upon  a  great  battle  between  the  Mongols  and  the 
powerful  tribe  of  the  Keraits.  The  latter  won  the 
victory,  the  Mongols  were  slain  in  thousands,  and 
the  power  which  Temujin  had  gained  by  years  of 
effort  was  in  a  day  overthrown.  Nothing  remained 


THE   TARTARS   AND   GENGHIS   KHAN.  233 

to  him  but  a  small  band  of  followers,  whose  only 
strength  lay  in  their  fidelity  and  discipline. 

Yet  a  man  of  the  military  ability  of  Temujin 
could  not  long  remain  at  so  low  an  ebb  of  fortune. 
In  a  brief  time  he  had  surprised  and  subdued  the 
Keraits,  and  next  met  in  battle  the  powerful  confed- 
eracy of  the  Naimans,  whom  he  defeated  in  a  stub- 
born and  long-contested  battle.  This  victory  made 
him  the  unquestioned  lord  of  the  steppes,  over  all 
whose  inhabitants  the  Mongols  had  become  supreme. 

And  now  Temujin  resolved  to  indicate  his  power 
by  some  title  worthy  of  the  great  position  he  had 
gained.  All  the  Mongol  chiefs  were  summoned  to  the 
grand  council  or  Kuriltui  of  the  tribe,  and  around  the 
national  ensign,  composed  of  nine  white  yak-tails, 
planted  in  the  centre  of  the  camp,  the  warriors  gath- 
ered to  hear  the  opinion  of  their  chief.  It  was  pro- 
claimed to  them  that  Temujin  was  not  content  with 
the  title  of  Gur  Khan,  to  which  its  former  bearers 
had  not  given  dignity,  but  would  assume  the  title  of 
Genghis  Khan  (Very  Mighty  Khan).  It  may  be 
said  here  that  there  are  almost  as  many  spellings  of 
this  name  as  there  are  historians  of  the  deeds  of  him 
that  bore  it. 

Genghis  made  princes  of  his  two  principal  gen- 
erals, rewarded  all  other  brave  officers,  and  in  every 
available  way  cemented  to  his  fortunes  the  Mongol 
chiefs.  He  was  now  about  forty-five  years  of  age, 
yet,  instead  of  being  at  the  end,  he  was  but  little 
beyond  the  beginning  of  his  career.  The  Kins,  who 
had  conquered  Northern  China,  and  whose  ruler  bore 
the  proud  title  of  emperor,  were  the  next  to  feel  the 


234  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

power  of  his  arms.  The  dominions  of  the  king  of 
Hia,  a  vassal  of  the  Kin  emperor,  were  invaded  and 
his  power  overthrown.  Genghis  married  his  daugh- 
ter, made  an  alliance  with  him,  and  in  1210  invaded 
the  territory  so  long  held  by  the  Kins. 

The  Great  Wall,  which  had  so  often  proved  use- 
less as  a  barrier  of  defence,  failed  to  check  the 
march  of  the  great  Mongol  host,  the  chief  who 
should  have  defended  it  being  bribed  to  desert  his 
charge.  Through  the  opening  thus  offered  the  Mon- 
gols poured  into  the  territory  of  the  Kins,  defeated 
them  in  every  engagement  in  the  field,  overran  the 
rich  provinces  held  by  them,  and  obtained  a  vast 
wealth  in  plunder.  Yet  the  war  was  now  waged 
against  a  settled  and  populous  state,  with  strong 
walled  cities  and  other  fortified  places,  instead  of 
against  the  scattered  clans  of  the  steppes,  and,  despite 
the  many  victories  of  the  invading  horde,  it  took 
twenty  years  of  constant  fighting  to  crush  the  Tartar 
emperor  of  Northern  China. 

In  truth,  the  resistance  of  the  emperor  of  the 
Kins  was  far  more  stubborn  and  effective  than  that 
of  the  nations  of  the  south  and  west.  In  1218 
Genghis  invaded  Central  Asia,  conquered  its  oases, 
and  destroyed  Bokhara,  Samarcand,  and  other  cities. 
He  next  subjected  the  whole  of  Persia,  while  the 
westward  march  of  the  armies  under  his  lieutenants 
was  arrested  only  at  the  mountain  barrier  of  Central 
Europe,  all  Eussia  falling  subject  to  his  rule.  In  four 
years  the  mighty  conqueror,  having  established  his 
rule  from  Armenia  to  the  Indus,  was  back  again  and 
ready  to  resume  his  struggle  with  the  Kins  of  China. 


THE   TARTARS   AND   GENGHIS   KHAN.  235 

He  found  the  kingdom  of  Hia  in  revolt,  and  in 
1225  assembled  against  it  the  largest  army  he  had 
ever  employed  in  his  Chinese  wars.  His  success  was 
rapid  and  complete.  The  cities,  the  fortresses,  the 
centres  of  trade,  fell  in  rapid  succession  into  his 
hands,  and  in  a  final  great  battle,  fought  upon  the 
frozen  waters  of  the  Hoang-ho,  the  army  of  Hia  was 
practically  exterminated.  This  was  the  last  great 
event  in  the  life  of  Genghis  Khan.  He  died  in  1227, 
having  by  his  ruthless  warfare  sent  five  millions  of 
victims  to  the  grave.  "With  his  last  words  he  de- 
plored the  wanton  cruelty  with  which  his  wars  had 
been  fought,  and  advised  his  people  to  refrain  in 
future  from  such  sanguinary  acts. 

Thus  died,  at  tbe  age  of  about  sixty-five  years, 
one  of  the  greatest  conquerors  the  world  has  known, 
the  area  of  whose  conquests  vastly  exceeded  those 
of  Csesar  and  Napoleon,  and  added  to  the  empire 
won  by  Alexander  a  still  greater  dominion  in  the 
north.  The  Chinese  said  of  him  that  "he  led  his 
armies  like  a  god ;"  and  in  truth  as  a  military  genius 
he  has  had  no  superior  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
The  sphere  of  no  other  conqueror  ever  embraced  so 
vast  a  realm,  and  the  wave  of  warfare  which  he  set 
in  motion  did  not  come  to  rest  until  it  had  covered 
nearly  the  whole  of  Asia  and  the  eastern  half  of  the 
European  continent.  Beginning  as  chief  of  the  frag- 
ment of  a  tribe,  he  ended  as  lord  of  nearly  half  the 
civilized  world,  and  dozens  of  depopulated  cities  told 
the  story  of  his  terrible  career.  He  had  swept  over 
the  earth  like  a  tornado  of  blood  and  death. 


HOW  THE  FRIARS  FARED 
AMONG  THE  TARTARS. 

THE  sea  of  Mongol  invasion  which,  pouring  in  the 
thirteenth  century  from  the  vast  steppes  of  Asia, 
overflowed  all  Eastern  Europe,  and  was  checked  in  its 
course  only  by  the  assembled  forces  of  the  German 
nations,  filled  the  world  of  the  West  with  inexpres- 
sible terror.  For  a  time,  after  whelming  beneath 
its  flood  Eussia,  Poland,  and  Hungary,  it  was  rolled 
back,  but  the  terror  remained.  At  any  moment 
these  savage  horsemen  might  return  in  irresistible 
strength  and  spread  the  area  of  desolation  to  the 
western  seas.  The  power  of  arms  seemed  too  feeble 
to  stay  them;  the  power  of  persuasion,  however, 
might  not  be  in  vain,  and  the  pope,  as  the  spiritual 
head  of  Europe,  felt  called  upon  to  make  an  effort 
for  the  rescue  of  the  Christian  world. 

Tartar  hordes  were  then  advancing  through  Persia 
towards  the  Holy  Land,  and  to  these,  in  the  forlorn 
hope  of  checking  their  course,  he  sent  as  ambassa- 
dors a  body  of  Franciscan  friars  composed  of  Father 
Ascelin  and  three  companions.  It  was  in  the  year 
1246  that  these  papal  envoys  set  out,  armed  with 
full  powers  from  the  head  of  the  Church,  but  sadly 
deficient  in  the  worldly  wisdom  necessary  to  deal 
with  such  truculent  infidels  as  those  whom  they  had 
been  sent  to  meet. 
236 


HOW   THE   FRIARS   FARED  AMONG   THE   TARTARS.      237 

Ascelin  and  his  comrades  journeyed  far  through 
Asia  in  search  of  a  Tartar  host,  and  at  length  found 
one  on  the  northern  frontier  of  Persia.  Into  the 
camp  of  the  barbarians  the  worthy  Franciscan 
boldly  advanced,  announcing  himself  as  an  ambassa- 
dor from  the  pope.  To  his  surprise,  this  announce- 
ment was  received  with  contempt  by  the  Tartars, 
who  knew  little  and  cared  less  for  the  object  of  his 
deep  veneration.  In  return  he  showed  his  feeling 
towards  the  infidels  in  a  way  that  soon  brought  his 
mission  into  a  perilous  state. 

He  was  refused  an  audience  with  the  Mongol  gen- 
eral unless  he  would  perform  the  ko-tou,  or  three 
genuflections,  an  act  which  he  and  his  followers  re- 
fused as  an  idolatrous  ceremony  which  would  scan- 
dalize all  Christendom.  Finally,  as  nothing  less 
would  be  accepted,  they,  in  their  wise  heads,  thought 
they  might  consent  to  perform  the  ko-tou,  provided 
the  general  and  all  his  army  would  become  Chris- 
tians. This  folly  capped  the  climax.  The  Tartars, 
whom  they  had  already  irritated,  broke  into  a  vio- 
lent rage,  loaded  the  friars  with  fierce  invectives,  and 
denounced  them  and  their  pope  as  Christian  dogs. 

A  council  was  called  to  decide  what  to  do  with 
these  insulting  strangers.  Some  suggested  that  the 
friars  should  be  flayed  alive,  and  their  skins,  stuffed 
with  hay,  sent  to  the  pope.  Others  wished  to  keep 
them  till  the  next  battle  with  the  Christians,  and 
then  place  them  in  front  of  the  army  as  victims  to 
the  god  of  war.  A  third  proposition  was  to  whip 
them  through  the  camp  and  then  put  them  to  death. 
But  Baithnoy,  the  general,  had  no  fancy  for  delay, 


238  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

and  issued  orders  that  the  whole  party  should  at  once 
be  executed. 

In  this  frightful  predicament,  into  which  Ascelin 
and  his  party  had  brought  themselves,  a  woman's 
pity  came  to  the  rescue.  Baithnoy's  principal  wife 
endeavored  to  move  him  to  compassion ;  but,  finding 
him  obdurate,  she  next  appealed  to  his  interest.  To 
violate  in  this  way  the  law  of  nations  would  cover 
him  with  disgrace,  she  said,  and  stay  the  coming  of 
many  who  otherwise  would  seek  his  camp  with 
homage  and  presents.  She  reminded  him  of  the 
anger  of  the  Great  Khan  when,  on  a  former  occa- 
sion, he  had  caused  the  heart  of  an  ambassador  to 
be  plucked  out  and  had  ridden  around  the  camp 
with  it  fastened  to  his  horse's  tail.  By  these  argu- 
ments, reinforced  with  entreaties,  she  induced  him 
to  spare  the  lives  of  the  friars. 

They  were  advised  to  visit  the  court  of  the  Great 
Khan,  but  Ascelin  had  seen  as  much  as  he  relished  of 
Tartar  courts,  and  refused  to  go  a  step  farther  ex- 
cept by  force.  He  was  then  desired,  as  he  had  been 
so  curious  to  see  a  Tartar  army,  to  wait  until  their 
expected  reinforcements  arrived.  He  protested  that 
he  had  seen  enough  Tartars  already  to  last  him  the 
rest  of  his  life ;  but,  despite  his  protest,  he  was  de- 
tained for  several  months,  during  which  the  Tartars 
amused  themselves  by  annoying  and  vexing  their 
visitors.  At  length,  after  having  been  half  starved, 
frequently  threatened  with  death,  and  insulted  in 
a  hundred  ways,  they  were  set  free,  bearing  letters 
to  the  pope  ordering  him  to  come  in  person  and  do 
homage  to  Genghis  Khan,  the  Son  of  God. 


HOW   THE   FRIARS   FARED   AMONG   THE   TARTARS.      239 

At  the  same  time  that  Ascelin  set  out  for  the  south, 
another  party,  headed  by  John  Carpini,  set  out  for 
the  north,  to  visit  the  Tartars  then  in  Russia.  Here 
they  were  startled  by  the  first  act  demanded  of 
them,  they  being  compelled  to  pass  between  two 
large  fires  as  a  purification  from  the  suspicion  of 
evil.  On  coming  into  the  presence  of  Bathy,  the  gen- 
eral, they,  more  terrified  perhaps  than  Ascelin,  did  not 
hesitate  to  fall  upon  their  knees.  To  heighten  their 
terrors,  two  of  them  were  sent  to  the  court  of  the 
Great  Khan,  in  the  heart  of  Tartary,  the  other  two 
being  detained  on  some  pretext.  The  journey  was 
a  frightful  one.  With  no  food  but  millet,  no  drink 
but  melted  snow,  pushing  on  at  a  furious  speed, 
changing  horses  several  times  a  day,  passing  over 
tracts  strewn  with  human  bones,  and  the  weather 
through  part  of  their  journey  being  bitterly  cold, 
they  at  length  reached  the  court  of  the  Mongols  on 
July  22,  1246. 

They  arrived  at  an  interesting  period.  The  elec- 
tion of  Kujak,  a  new  khan,  was  about  to  take  place, 
and,  in  addition  to  great  Tartar  lords  from  all  quar- 
ters of  the  Mongol  empire,  ambassadors  from  Russia, 
Persia,  Bagdad,  India,  and  China  were  at  hand  with 
presents  and  congratulations.  The  assembled  nobles, 
four  thousand  in  all,  dazzled  Carpini  with  their  pomp 
and  magnificence.  The  coronation  was  attended 
with  peculiar  ceremonies,  and  a  few  days  afterwards 
audience  was  given  to  the  ambassadors,  that  they 
might  deliver  their  presents.  Here  the  friars  were 
amazed  at  the  abundance  and  value  of  the  gifts, 
which  consisted  of  satin  cloths,  robes  of  purple,  silk 


240  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

girdles  wrought  with  gold,  and  costly  skins.  Most 
surprising  of  all  was  a  "sun  canopy"  (umbrella)  full 
of  precious  stones,  a  long  row  of  camels  covered 
with  Baldakin  cloth,  and  a  "  wonderful  brave  tent, 
all  of  red  purple,  presented  by  the  Kythayans" 
(Chinese),  while  near  by  stood  five  hundred  carts 
"all  full  of  silver,  and  of  gold,  and  of  silk  gar- 
ments." 

The  friars  were  now  placed  in  an  embarrassing 
position  by  being  asked  what  presents  they  had  to 
give.  They  had  so  little  that  they  thought  it  best  to 
declare  "  that  they  were  not  of  ability  so  to  do." 
This  failure  was  well  received,  and  throughout  their 
visit  they  were  treated  with  great  respect,  the  khan 
cajoling  them  with  hints  that  he  proposed  publicly 
to  profess  Christianity. 

These  flattering  hopes  came  to  a  sudden  end  when 
the  great  Mongol  ruler  ordered  the  erection  of  a  flag 
of  defiance  against  the  Roman  empire,  the  Christian 
Church,  and  all  the  Christian  kingdoms  of  the  West, 
unless  they  would  do  homage  to  him  ;  and  with  this 
abrupt  termination  to  their  embassy  they  were  dis- 
missed. After  "  travailing  all  winter  long,"  sleeping 
on  snow  without  shelter,  and  suffering  other  hard- 
ships, they  reached  Europe  in  June.  1247,  where  they 
were  "rejoiced  over  as  men  that  had  been  risen 
from  death  to  life." 

Carpini  was  the  first  European  to  approach  the 
borders  of  China,  or  Catha}',  as  it  was  then  called, 
and  the  story  he  told  about  that  mysterious  empire 
of  the  East,  gathered  from  the  Tartars,  was  of  much 
interest,  and,  so  far  as  it  went,  of  considerable  ac- 


HOW   THE   FRIARS   FARED   AMONG   THE   TARTARS.      241 

curacy.  He  was  also  the  first  to  visit  the  court  of 
those  terrible  warriors  who  had  filled  the  world  with 
dismay,  and  to  bring  to  Europe  an  account  of  their 
barbaric  manners  and  customs. 

Shortly  after  (in  1253)  a  friar  named  Kubruquis, 
with  two  companions,  was  sent  to  Tartary  by  Louis 
IX.  of  France  to  search  for  Prester  John,  an  imagi- 
nary Christian  potentate  supposed  to  reign  in  the 
centre  of  Asia,  to  visit  Sartach,  a  Tartar  chief  also 
reported  a  Christian,  and  to  teach  the  doctrines  of 
Christianity  to  all  the  Tartars  he  should  find.  Ku- 
bruquis did  his  work  well,  and,  while  failing  to  find 
Prester  John  or  to  convert  any  of  the  Tartars,  he 
penetrated  to  the  very  centre  of  the  Mongol  em- 
pire, visited  Karakorum,  the  capital  of  the  Great 
Khans,  and  brought  back  much  valuable  information, 
giving  a  clear,  accurate,  and  intelligent  account  of  the 
lands  he  had  seen  and  the  people  he  had  met,  with 
such  news  of  distant  China  as  he  could  obtain  with- 
out actually  crossing  the  Great  Wall. 

After  his  visit  information  concerning  these  remote 
regions  ceased  until  the  publication  of  the  remark- 
ably interesting  book  of  Marco  Polo,  the  first  to 
write  of  China  from  an  actual  visit  to  its  court. 
The  story  of  his  visit  must  be  left  for  a  later  tale. 


16 


THE  SIEGE  OF  SI  ANYANG. 

IN  the  year  1268  the  army  of  Kublai  Khan,  grand- 
son of  Genghis  the  famous  conqueror,  made  its  ap- 
pearance before  the  stronghold  of  Sianyang,  an  im- 
portant city  of  China  on  the  southern  bank  of  the 
Han  River.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  stream  stood 
the  city  of  Fanching,  the  two  being  connected  by 
bridges  and  forming  virtually  a  single  city.  Sian- 
yang, the  capital  of  a  populous  and  prosperous  dis- 
trict, was  the  most  important  stronghold  left  to 
China,  and  its  fall  would  be  almost  fatal  to  that 
realm.  Hence  Kublai,  who  had  succeeded  to  the 
empire  of  the  Kins  in  Northern  China,  and  was  bent 
on  making  the  rest  of  that  country  his  own,  made 
his  first  move  against  this  powerful  city,  which  the 
Chinese  prepared  with  energy  to  defend.  In  all  the 
history  of  its  wars  China  showed  no  greater  courage 
and  resolution  than  in  the  defence  of  this  important 
place. 

The  army  of  Kublai  consisted  of  sixty  thousand 
veterans  of  the  Mongol  wars,  with  a  large  body  of 
auxiliary  troops,  an  army  large  enough  to  occupy  all 
the  neighboring  heights  and  form  an  intrenched 
camp  around  the  city  ten  miles  in  length.  This 
done,  and  all  communication  by  land  cut  off,  steps 
were  taken  to  intercept  all  supplies  sent  by  water. 
The  Mongols  had  no  vessels,  but  they  set  themselves 
242 


THE   SIEGE   OF   SIANYANQ.  243 

with  their  usual  activity  to  build  a  fleet,  and  in  a 
short  time  had  launched  upon  the  Han  fifty  junks 
larger  than  those  used  by  the  Chinese. 

Meanwhile  Lieouwen  Hoan,  governor  of  the  two 
cities,  was  strengthening  their  works  and  vigorously 
repelling  every  assault  of  his  foes.  The  city  was 
surrounded  by  thick  and  lofty  walls  and  a  deep 
fosse,  was  amply  garrisoned,  and  was  abundantly 
supplied  with  provisions,  having  food- supplies,  it 
was  said,  sufficient  "for  a  period  of  ten  years." 
Thus  provided,  the  gallant  commandant,  confident 
in  his  strength  and  resources,  defied  the  efforts  of 
the  enemy.  Threatened  by  the  Mongols  with  mas- 
sacre if  he  should  continue  a  vain  defence,  he  re- 
torted by  declaring  that  he  would  drag  the  rene- 
gade general  in  command  of  their  troops  in  chains 
into  the  presence  of  the  master  to  whom  he  had 
proved  a  traitor. 

These  bold  words  were  sustained  by  brave  deeds. 
All  the  assaults  of  the  Mongols  were  valiantly  re- 
pulsed, and,  although  their  army  was  constantly  re- 
inforced by  fresh  troops,  the  siege  made  very  slow 
progress.  The  position  of  the  besiegers  was  several 
times  changed,  their  lines  were  here  extended  and 
there  withdrawn,  but  all  their  efforts  proved  vain, 
they  being  baffled  on  every  side,  while  the  governor 
held  out  with  unyielding  fortitude. 

A  flotilla  of  store-ships  on  the  Han  was  met  by 
the  Mongol  fleet  and  driven  back  with  serious  loss, 
but  this  success  was  of  no  great  service  to  the  be- 
siegers, since  the  cities  were  still  well  supplied. 
Thus  for  three  years  the  siege  went  on,  and  it  was 


244  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

beginning  to  languish,  when  new  spirit  was  given  it 
by  fresh  preparations  on  the  part  of  the  two  con- 
testants. Kublai,  weary  of  the  slow  progress  of  his 
armies,  resolved  to  press  the  siege  with  more  vigor 
than  ever,  while  the  Chinese  minister  determined  lo 
do  something  for  the  relief  of  the  garrison. 

A  large  Chinese  army  was  put  into  the  field,  but 
it  was  placed  under  the  command  of  an  incapable 
officer,  whose  dilatory  movements  promised  little  for 
the  aid  of  the  valiant  defenders.  Nothing  would 
have  been  done  had  not  abler  and  bolder  spirits  come 
to  the  assistance  of  the  beleaguered  host.  Litingchi, 
governor  of  Ganlo,  a  town  on  the  Han  south  of 
Sianyang,  incensed  by  the  tardy  march  of  the  army 
of  relief,  resolved  to  strike  a  prompt  and  telling 
blow.  Collecting  a  force  of  three  thousand  men, 
from  which  he  dismissed  all  who  feared  to  take  part 
in  the  perilous  adventure,  he  laid  his  plans  to  throw 
into  Sianyang  this  reinforcement,  with  a  large  con- 
voy of  such  supplies  as  he  had  learned  that  the 
garrison  needed. 

The  attempt  was  made  successful  through  the 
valor  of  the  Chinese  troops.  Several  hundred  ves- 
sels, escorted  by  the  band  of  devoted  warriors,  sailed 
down  a  tributary  of  the  Han  towards  Sianyang. 
The  Mongols  had  sought  by  chains  and  other  ob- 
stacles to  close  the  stream,  but  these  were  broken 
through  by  the  junks,  whose  impetuous  advance  had 
taken  the  besiegers  by  surprise.  Recovering  their 
spirit,  and  taking  advantage  of  the  high  ground 
above  the  stream,  the  Mongols  soon  began  to  regain 
the  ground  they  had  lost  and  to  imperil  the  success 


THE   SIEGE   OF   SIANYANQ.  245 

of  the  expedition.  Seeing  this,  and  fearing  the  de- 
feat of  the  project,  Changchun,  at  the  head  of  one 
division  of  the  escort  of  troops,  devoted  himself  and 
his  men  to  death  for  the  safety  of  the  fleet,  charging 
so  vigorously  as  to  keep  the  Mongols  fully  occupied 
for  several  hours.  This  diversion  gave  the  other 
Chinese  leader  an  opportunity  to  push  on  to  Sian- 
yang  with  the  store-ships,  where  they  were  joy- 
fully received  by  the  people,  who  for  three  years 
had  been  cut  off  from  communication  with  the  out- 
side world. 

So  great  were  the  excitement  and  joy  of  the  gar- 
rison that  they  flung  open  the  city  gates,  in  bold 
defiance  of  their  foes,  or  as  if  they  thought  that  the 
Mongols  must  be  in  full  retreat.  Their  enthusiasm, 
however,  was  somewhat  dampened  when  the  muti- 
lated body  of  the  heroic  Changchun  came  floating 
down  the  stream,  in  evidence  of  the  continued  pres- 
ence and  barbarity  of  their  foes.  The  work  of  rein- 
forcement done,  Changkone,  the  other  leader  of  the 
party  of  relief,  who  had  succeeded  in  bringing  to  the 
garrison  certain  needed  supplies,  felt  that  he  was  not 
wanted  within  its  walls.  Outside,  Litingchi  was  hov- 
ering near  the  enemy  with  a  force  of  five  thousand 
men,  and  the  gallant  admiral  of  the  fleet  resolved  to 
cut  his  way  out  again  and  join  this  partisan  band. 

Calling  together  his  late  followers,  he  extolled  the 
<rlory  they  had  won  and  promised  them  new  fame. 
But  in  the  midst  of  his  address  he  perceived  that 
one  of  the  men  had  disappeared,  and  suspected  that 
he  had  deserted  to  the  Mongols  with  a  warning  of 
what  was  intended.  Changkone,  however,  did  not 


246  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

let  this  check  him  in  his  daring  purpose.  Gathering 
the  few  war-junks  that  remained,  he  set  sail  that 
night,  bursting  through  the  chains  that  crossed  the 
stream,  and  cutting  his  way  with  sword  and  spear 
through  the  first  line  of  the  Mongol  fleet. 

Before  him  the  river  stretched  in  a  straight  and 
unguarded  course,  and  it  seemed  as  if  safety  had 
been  won.  But  the  early  light  of  the  dawning  day 
revealed  an  alarming  scene.  Before  the  daring 
band  lay  another  fleet,  flying  the  Mongol  flag,  while 
thousands  of  armed  foes  occupied  the  banks  of 
the  stream.  The  odds  were  hopelessly  against  the 
Chinese,  there  was  no  choice  between  death  and 
surrender,  but  the  heroic  Changkone  unhesitatingly 
resolved  to  accept  the  former,  and  was  seconded  in 
his  devotion  by  his  men.  Dashing  upon  the  Mon- 
gol fleet,  they  fought  on  while  a  man  was  left  to  bend 
bow  or  thrust  spear,  continuing  the  struggle  until 
the  blood  of  the  whole  gallant  band  reddened  the 
waters  of  the  stream.  The  Mongol  leader  sent  the 
body  of  Changkone  into  the  city,  either  as  a  threat 
or  as  a  tribute  of  admiration.  It  was  received  with 
loud  lamentations,  and  given  a  place  in  burial  beside 
that  of  Changchun,  his  partner  in  the  most  gallant 
deed  that  Chinese  history  records. 

This  incident,  while  spurring  the  garrison  to  new 
spirit  in  their  defence,  roused  the  Mongols  to  a  more 
resolute  pressure  of  the  siege.  As  yet  they  had 
given  their  attention  mainly  to  Sianyang,  but  now 
they  drew  their  lines  around  Fanching  as  well.  The 
great  extent  of  the  Mongol  dominion  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that  they  sent  as  far  as  Persia  for  engineers 


THE   SIEGE   OF   SIANYANG.  247 

skilful  in  siege-work  and  accustomed  to  building  and 
handling  the  great  catapults  with  which  huge  stones 
were  flung  against  fortified  places  in  the  warfare  of 
that  age.  By  the  aid  of  these  powerful  engines  many 
of  the  defences  of  Sianyang  were  demolished  and  the 
bridge  between  the  two  cities  was  destroyed. 

This  done,  the  siege  of  Fanehing  was  vigorously 
pressed,  and,  after  a  severe  bombardment,  an  assault 
in  force  was  made.  Despite  the  resolute  resistance 
of  the  garrison,  the  walls  were  forced,  and  the 
streets  became  the  scene  of  a  fierce  and  deadly  fight. 
From  street  to  street,  from  house  to  house,  the 
struggle  continued,  and  when  resistance  had  become 
utterly  hopeless  the  Chinese  officers,  rather  than 
surrender,  slew  themselves,  in  which  they  were  imi- 
tated by  many  of  their  men.  It  was  a  city  of  ruins 
and  slaughtered  bodies  that  the  Mongols  had  won. 

The  engines  were  now  all  directed  against  the 
fortifications  of  Sianyang,  where  the  garrison  had 
become  greatly  dispirited  by  the  fall  of  Fanehing 
and  the  failure  of  the  army  of  relief  to  appear. 
Lieouwen  Hoan  still  held  out,  though  he  saw  that 
his  powers  of  defence  were  nearly  at  an  end,  and 
feared  that  at  any  moment  the  soldiers  might  refuse 
to  continue  what  seemed  to  them  a  useless  effort. 

Kublai  at  this  juncture  sent  him  the  following 
letter:  "The  generous  defence  you  have  made  dur- 
ing five  years  covers  you  with  glory.  It  is  the  duty 
of  every  faithful  subject  to  serve  his  prince  at  the 
expense  of  his  life  ;  but  in  the  straits  to  which  you 
are  reduced,  your  strength  exhausted,  deprived  of 
succor,  and  without  hope  of  receiving  any,  would  it 


248  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

be  reasonable  to  sacrifice  the  lives  of  so  many  brave 
men  out  of  sheer  obstinacy?  Submit  in  good  faith, 
and  no  harm  shall  come  to  you.  We  promise  you 
still  more,  and  that  is  to  provide  all  of  you  with 
honorable  employment.  You  shall  have  no  grounds 
for  discontent :  for  that  we  pledge  you  our  imperial 
word." 

This  letter  ended  the  struggle.  After  some  hesi- 
tation, Lieouwen  Hoan,  incensed  at  the  failure  of 
the  arrny  to  come  to  his  relief  and  at  the  indiffer- 
ence of  the  emperor  to  his  fate,  surrendered,  and 
thenceforth  devoted  to  the  service  of  Kublai  the 
courage  and  ability  of  which  he  had  shown  such 
striking  evidence  in  the  defence  of  Sianyang. 


THE  DEATH-STRUGGLE  OF 
CHINA. 

NEVER  in  its  history  has  China  shown  such  un- 
yielding courage  as  it  did  in  its  resistance  to  the 
invasion  under  Kublai  Khan.  The  city  of  Sianyang 
alone  held  back  the  tide  of  Mongol  success  for  full 
five  years.  After  its  fall  there  were  other  strong- 
holds to  be  taken,  other  armies  to  be  fought,  and  for 
a  number  of  years  the  Chinese  fought  desperately 
for  their  native  land.  But  one  by  one  their  fortified 
cities  fell,  one  by  one  their  armies  were  driven  back 
by  the  impetuous  foe,  and  gradually  the  conquest  of 
Southern  China  was  added  to  that  of  the  north. 

Finally  the  hopes  of  China  were  centred  upon  a 
single  man,  Chang  Chikie,  a  general  of  unflinching 
zeal  and  courage,  who  recaptured  several  towns,  and, 
gathering  a  great  fleet,  said  to  have  numbered  no 
fewer  than  two  thousand  war  junks,  sailed  up  the 
Yang-tse-Kiang  with  the  purpose  of  attacking  the 
Mongol  positions  below  Nanking.  The  fleet  of  the 
Mongols  lay  at  that  point  where  the  Imperial  Canal 
enters  the  Kiang  on  both  sides.  Here  the  stream  is 
wide  and  ample  and  presents  a  magnificent  field  for 
a  naval  battle. 

The  attack  of  the  Chinese  was  made  with  reso- 
lution and  energy,  but  the  Mongol  admiral  had  pre- 
pared for  them  by  sending  in  advance  his  largest 

249 


250  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

vessels,  manned  with  bowmen  instructed  to  attach 
lighted  pitch  to  their  arrows.  The  Mongol  assault 
was  made  before  the  Chinese  fleet  had  emerged  from 
the  narrow  part  of  the  river,  in  which  comparatively 
few  of  the  host  of  vessels  could  be  brought  into 
play.  The  flaming  arrows  set  on  fire  a  number  of 
the  junks,  and,  though  the  Chinese  in  advance  fought 
bravely,  these  burning  vessels  carried  confusion  and 
alarm  to  the  thronging  vessels  in  the  rear.  Here 
the  crews,  unable  to  take  part  in  the  fight  and  their 
crowded  vessels  threatened  with  the  flames,  were 
seized  with  a  fear  that  soon  became  an  uncontrol- 
lable panic.  The  result  was  disastrous.  Of  the  great 
fleet  no  less  than  seven  hundred  vessels  were  cap- 
tured by  the  Mongols,  while  a  still  greater  number 
were  burnt  or  sunk,  hardly  a  fourth  of  the  vast 
armament  escaping  from  that  fatal  field. 

The  next  events  which  we  have  to  record  take  us 
forward  to  the  year  1278,  when  the  city  of  Canton 
had  been  captured  by  the  Mongol  troops,  and  scarcely 
a  fragment  of  the  once  great  empire  remained  in  the 
hands  of  the  Chinese  ruler. 

The  incompetent  Chinese  emperor  had  died,  and 
the  incapable  minister  to  whose  feebleness  the  fall 
of  Sianyang  was  due  had  been  dismissed  by  his  mas- 
ter and  murdered  by  his  enemies.  The  succeeding 
emperor  had  been  captured  by  the  Mongols  on  the 
full  of  the  capital.  Another  had  been  proclaimed 
and  had  died,  and  the  last  emperor  of  the  Sung  dy- 
nasty, a  young  prince  named  Tiping,  was  now  with 
Chang  Chikie,  whose  small  army  constituted  his  only 
hope,  and  the  remains  of  the  fleet  his  only  empire. 


THE   DEATH-STRUGGLE   OP  CHINA.  251 

The  able  leader  on  whom  the  last  hopes  of  the  Chi- 
nese dynasty  now  rested  selected  a  natural  strong- 
hold on  an  island  named  Tai,  in  a  natural  harbor 
which  could  be  entered  only  with  a  favorable  tide. 
This  position  he  made  the  most  strenuous  efforts  to 
fortify,  building  strong  works  on  the  heights  above 
the  bay,  and  gathering  troops  until  he  had  an  army 
of  nearly  two  hundred  thousand  men. 

So  rapidly  did  he  work  that  his  fortifications  were 
completed  before  the  Mongol  admiral  discovered  his 
locality.  On  learning  what  had  been  done,  the  Mon- 
gols at  once  hurried  forward  reinforcements  and 
prepared  for  an  immediate  and  vigorous  assault  on 
this  final  stronghold  of  the  empire  of  China.  The 
attack  was  made  with  the  impetuous  courage  for 
which  the  Mongols  had  become  noted,  but  the  works 
were  bravely  held,  and  for  two  days  the  struggle 
was  maintained  without  advantage  to  the  assailants. 
On  the  third  day  the  Mongol  admiral  resumed  his 
attack,  and  a  fiercely  contested  battle  took  place,  end- 
ing in  the  Chinese  fleet  being  thrown  into  confusion. 
The  result  would  have  been  utterly  disastrous  had 
not  a  heavy  mist  fallen  at  this  opportune  moment, 
under  cover  of  which  Chang  Chikie,  followed  by 
sixteen  vessels  of  his  fleet,  made  his  way  out  to  sea. 

The  vessel  which  held  the  young  emperor  was  less 
fortunate.  Caught  in  the  press  of  the  battle,  its 
capture  was  inevitable,  and  with  it  that  of  the  last 
emperor  of  the  Sung  dynasty.  In  this  desperate 
emergency,  a  faithful  minister  of  the  empire,  re- 
solved to  save  the  honor  of  his  master  even  at  the 
sacrifice  of  his  life,  took  him  in  his  arms  and  leaped 


252  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

with  bim  into  the  sea.  This  act  of  desperation  was 
emulated  by  many  of  the  officers  of  the  vessel,  and 
in  this  dramatic  way  the  great  dynasty  of  the  Sung 
came  to  an  end. 

But  the  last  blow  for  the  empire  had  not  been 
struck  so  long  as  Chang  Chikie  survived.  With  him 
had  escaped  the  mother  of  the  drowned  prince,  and 
on  learning  of  his  loss  the  valiant  leader  requested 
her  to  name  some  member  of  the  Sung  family  to 
succeed  him.  But  the  mother,  overwhelmed  with 
grief  at  the  death  of  her  son,  was  in  no  mood  to  listen 
to  anything  not  connected  with  her  loss,  and  at 
length,  hopeless  and  inconsolable,  she  put  an  end  to 
her  own  existence  by  leaping  overboard  irom  the 
vessel's  side. 

Chang  Chikie  was  left  alone,  with  the  destinies  of 
the  empire  dependent  solely  upon  him.  Yet  his  high 
courage  sustained  him  still ;  he  was  not  ready  to  ac- 
knowledge final  defeat,  and  he  sailed  southward  in 
the  double  hope  of  escaping  Mongol  pursuit  and  of 
obtaining  means  for  the  renewal  of  the  struggle. 
The  states  of  Indo-China  were  then  tributary  to  the 
empire,  and  his  small  fleet  put  in  to  a  port  of  Ton- 
quin,  whose  ruler  not  only  welcomed  him,  but  aided 
him  to  refit  his  fleet,  collect  stores,  and  enlist  fresh 
troops. 

Thus  strengthened,  the  intrepid  admiral  resolved 
to  renew  the  war  without  delay,  his  project  being 
to  assault  Canton,  which  he  hoped  to  take  by  a  sud- 
den attack.  This  enterprise  seemed  desperate  to  his 
followers,  who  sought  to  dissuade  him  from  what 
might  prove  a  fatal  course ;  but,  spurred  on  by  his 


THE   DEATH-STBUGQLE   OF   CHINA.  253 

own  courage  and  a  hope  of  retrieving  the  cause  of 
the  Sungs,  he  persisted  in  his  purpose,  and  the  fleet 
once  more  returned  to  the  seas. 

It  was  now  1279,  a  year  after  Tiping's  death.  The 
Mongols  lay  in  fancied  security,  not  dreaming  that 
there  was  in  all  China  the  resolution  to  strike  an- 
other blow,  and  probably  unsuspicious  that  a  fleet 
was  bearing  down  upon  one  of  their  captured  ports. 
What  would  have  been  the  result  had  Chang  Chikie 
been  able  to  deliver  his  attack  it  is  impossible  to  say. 
He  might  have  taken  Canton  by  surprise  and  cap- 
tured it  from  the  enemy,  but  in  any  event  he  could 
not  have  gained  more  than  a  temporary  success. 

As  it  was,  he  gained  none.  Fate  had  destined  the 
fall  of  China,  and  the  elements  came  to  the  assistance 
of  its  foes.  A  sudden  and  violent  tempest  fell  upon 
the  fleet  while  near  the  southern  headland  of  the 
Kwantung  coast,  hurling  nearly  or  quite  all  the  ves- 
sels on  the  shore  or  sinking  them  beneath  the  waves. 
The  bold  leader  had  been  counselled  to  seek  shelter 
from  the  storm  under  the  lee  of  the  shore,  but  he  re- 
fused, and  kept  on  despite  the  storm,  daring  death  in 
his  singleness  of  purpose. 

"  I  have  done  everything  I  could,"  he  said,  "  to 
sustain  the  Sung  dynasty  on  the  throne.  When  one 
prince  died  I  had  another  proclaimed.  He  also  has 
perished,  and  I  still  live.  Should  I  be  acting  against 
thy  decrees,  O  Heaven,  if  I  sought  to  place  a  new 
prince  on  the  throne?" 

It  appeared  so,  for  the  winds  and  the  waves  gave 
answer,  and  the  last  defender  of  China  sank  to  death 
beneath  the  sea.  The  conquest  of  China  was  thus 


254  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

at  length  completed  after  seventy  years  of  resist- 
ance against  the  most  valorous  soldiers  of  the  world, 
led  by  such  generals  as  Genghis,  Kublai,  and  other 
warlike  Mongol  princes.  In  view  of  the  fact  that 
Genghis  had  overrun  Southern  Asia  in  a  few  years, 
this  long  and  obstinate  resistance  of  China,  despite 
the  incompetence  of  its  princes  and  ministers,  places 
in  a  striking  light  the  great  military  strength  of  the 
empire  at  that  period  of  its  history. 


THE  PALACE  OF  KUBLAI  KHAN. 

IN  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  two  emi- 
nent Venetian  merchants,  Nicolo  and  Matteo  Polo, 
of  noble  birth  and  adventurous  spirit,  left  their 
native  city  for  a  long  journey  to  the  East,  their  pur- 
poses being  those  of  ordinary  travel  and  also  of 
barter,  for  which  they  took  with  them  a  stock  of 
jewels,  as  the  commodity  of  most  worth  with  least 
weight.  Visiting  Constantinople  and  several  Eussian 
cities,  they  journej^ed  to  the  capital  of  the  khan  of 
Kaptchak,  where  they  remained  three  years,  trading 
and  studying  the  Mongol  language.  Subsequently 
they  met  in  Bokhara  a  Persian  ambassador  on  the 
way  to  the  court  of  Kublai  Khan,  and  were  per- 
suaded to  keep  him  company  as  far  as  Kambalu  (the 
modern  Peking),  the  capital  of  the  Mongol  emperor 
of  Cathay,  or  China. 

Their  journey  led  them  through  Samarcand,  Cash- 
gar,  and  other  cities  of  the  far  East,  a  whole  year 
passing  before  they  reached  the  capital  of  the  great 
potentate,  by  whom  they  were  graciously  received. 
Kublai  asked  them  many  questions  about  their 
country,  and  was  very  curious  about  the  pope,  to 
whom  he  in  the  end  sent  them  as  ambassadors,  bid- 
ding them  return  to  him  with  a  hundred  Europeans 
learned  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  for  the  instruction 

266 


256  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

of  his  people.  They  reached  Venice  in  1269,  after 
an  absence  of  fifteen  years. 

In  1271  they  set  out  again  for  China,  bearing  de- 
spatches from  the  pope,  but  without  the  learned  Eu- 
ropeans they  were  to  bring.  Marco,  the  young  son  of 
Nicolo,  accompanied  them  on  their  journey,  which  oc- 
cupied three  and  a  half  years.  Ivublai,  though  he  had 
nearly  forgotten  their  existence,  received  them  as  gra- 
ciously as  before,  and  was  particularly  pleased  with 
young  Marco,  giving  him  a  high  office  and  employing 
him  on  important  missions  throughout  the  empire. 
In  truth,  he  took  so  strong  a  fancy  to  his  visitors  that 
they  were  not  suffered  to  leave  China  for  years,  and 
finally  got  away  in  1291  only  as  escort  to  a  Mongol 
princess  who  was  sent  as  a  bride  to  Persia. 

Twenty- four  years  had  elapsed  from  the  time  they 
left  Venice  before  they  appeared  in  that  city  again. 
They  were  quite  forgotten,  but  the  wealth  in  pre- 
cious stones  they  brought  with  them  soon  freshened 
the  memory  of  their  relatives,  and  they  became  the 
heroes  of  the  city.  Marco  took  part  in  a  war  then 
raging  with  Genoa,  was  taken  prisoner,  and  long  lay 
in  a  dungeon,  where  he  dictated  to  a  fellow-prisoner 
the  story  of  his  adventures  and  the  wonderful  things 
he  had  seen  in  the  dominions  of  the  Great  Khan 
of  Cathay.  This  was  afterwards  published  as  "  II 
Milione  di  Messer  Marco  Polo  Veneziano,"  and  at 
once  gained  a  high  reputation,  which  it  has  pre- 
served from  that  day  to  this.  Though  long  looked 
on  by  many  as  pure  fable,  time  has  proved  its  essen- 
tial truth,  and  it  is  now  regarded  as  the  most  valu- 
able geographical  work  of  the  Middle  Ages. 


THE   PALACE   OF   KUBLAI   KHAN.  257 

We  cannot  undertake  to  give  the  diffuse  narrative 
of  Marco  Polo's  book,  but  a  condensed  account  of  a 
few  of  his  statements  may  prove  of  interest,  as  show- 
ing some  of  the  conditions  of  China  in  this  middle 
period  of  its  existence.  His  description  of  the  great 
palace  of  Kublai,  near  his  capital  city  of  Kambalu, 
much  the  largest  royal  residence  in  the  world,  is  of 
sufficient  interest  to  be  given  in  epitome.  The  palace 
grounds  included  a  great  park,  enclosed  by  a  wall 
and  ditch  eight  miles  square,  with  an  entrance  gate 
midway  of  each  side.  Within  this  great  enclosure 
of  sixty-four  square  miles  was  an  open  space  a  mile 
broad,  in  which  the  troops  were  stationed,  it  being 
bounded  on  the  interior  by  a  second  wall  six  miles 
square.  This  space,  twenty-eight  square  miles  in 
area,  held  an  army  of  more  than  a  hundred  thou- 
sand men,  nearly  all  cavalry. 

Within  the  second  wall  lay  the  royal  arsenals  and 
the  deer-park,  with  meadows  and  handsome  groves, 
and  in  the  interior  rose  a  third  wall  of  great  thick- 
ness, each  side  of  which  was  a  mile  in  length,  while 
its  height  was  twenty-five  feet.  This  last  enclosure, 
one  square  mile  in  area,  contained  the  palace,  which 
reached  from  the  northern  to  the  southern  wall  and 
included  a  spacious  court.  Though  its  roof  was 
very  lofty,  it  was  but  one  story  in  height,  standing 
on  a  paved  platform  of  several  feet  elevation,  from 
which  extended  a  marble  terrace  seven  feet  wide, 
surrounded  by  a  handsome  balustrade,  which  the 
people  were  allowed  to  approach. 

Carved  and  gilt  dragons,  figures  of  warriors  and 
animals,  and  battle-scenes  ornamented  the  sides  of 
17 


258  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

the  great  hall  and  the  apartments,  while  the  roof 
was  so  contrived  that  only  gilding  and  painting  were 
to  be  seen.  On  each  side  of  the  palace  a  grand  flight 
of  marble  steps  ascended  to  the  marble  terrace  which 
surrounded  the  building.  The  interior  contained  an 
immense  hall,  capable  of  serving  as  a  banqueting- 
room  for  a  multitude  of  guests,  while  the  numerous 
chambers  were  all  of  great  beauty  and  admirably 
arranged. 

The  roof  on  the  exterior  was  painted  red,  green, 
azure,  and  violet,  the  colors  being  highly  durable, 
while  the  glazing  of  the  windows  was  so  neatly  done 
that  they  were  transparent  as  crystal.  In  the  rear 
of  the  palace  were  arranged  the  treasure-rooms, 
which  contained  a  great  store  of  gold  and  silver 
bullion,  pearls  and  precious  stones,  and  valuable 
plate.  Here  also  were  the  family  apartments  of  the 
emperor  and  his  wives.  Opposite  the  grand  palace 
stood  another,  very  similar  in  design,  where  dwelt  his 
eldest  son,  the  heir  to  the  throne. 

On  the  north  side,  between  the  palace  and  the 
adjoining  wall,  rose  an  artificial  mound  of  earth,  a 
hundred  paces  high  and  a  mile  in  circuit  at  its  base. 
Its  slopes  were  planted  with  beautiful  evergreen 
trees,  which  had  been  transported  thither,  when 
well  grown,  by  the  aid  of  elephants.  This  perpetual 
verdure  gave  it  the  appropriate  name  of  the  Green 
Mount.  An  ornamental  pavilion  crowned  the  sum- 
mit,  which,  in  harmony  with  the  sides,  was  also  made 
green.  The  view  of  the  mount,  with  its  ever-verdant 
trees  and  the  richly  decorated  building  on  its  sum- 
mit, formed  a  scene  delightful  to  the  eyes  of  the  em- 


THE   PALACE  OP   KUBLAI   KHAN.  259 

peror  and  the  other  inmates  of  the  palace.  This  bill 
still  exists,  and  is  yet  known  by  its  original  title  of 
Kinshan,  or  the  Green  Mount. 

The  excavation  made  to  obtain  the  earth  for  the 
mount  was  filled  with  water  from  a  small  rivulet, 
forming  a  lake  from  which  the  cattle  drank,  its  over- 
flow being  carried  by  an  aqueduct  along  the  foot 
of  the  Green  Mount  to  fill  another  great  and  very 
deep  excavation,  made  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
former.  This  was  used  as  a  fish-pond,  containing 
fish  in  large  variety  and  number,  sufficient  to  keep 
the  table  of  the  emperor  constantly  supplied.  Iron 
or  copper  gratings  at  the  entrance  and  exit  pre- 
vented the  escape  of  the  fish  along  the  stream.  The 
pond  was  also  stocked  with  swans  and  other  aquatic 
birds,  and  a  bridge  across  its  width  led  from  one 
palace  to  the  other. 

Such  was  the  palace.  The  city  was  correspond- 
ingly great  and  prosperous,  and  had  an  immense 
trade.  A  thousand  pack-horses  and  carriages  laden 
with  raw  silk  daily  entered  its  gates,  and  within 
its  workshops  a  vast  quantity  of  silk  and  gold  tis- 
sues was  produced.  As  Hoangti  made  himself  fa- 
mous by  the  Great  Wall,  so  Kublai  won  fame  by  the 
far  more  useful  work  of  the  Great  Canal,  which  was 
largely  due  to  his  fostering  care,  and  has  ever  since 
been  of  inestimable  value  to  China,  while  the  Wall 
never  kept  out  a  Tartar  who  strongly  desired  to  get 
over  its  threatening  but  useless  height. 

Having  said  so  much  about  the  conditions  of  pal- 
ace and  capital,  it  may  be  of  interest  to  extract  from 
Polo's  narrative  some  account  of  the  method  pur- 


260  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

sued  in  war  during  Kublai's  reign.  The  Venetian 
attended  a  campaign  made  by  the  emperor  against 
one  of  his  kinsmen  named  Nayan,  who  had  under 
him  so  many  cities  and  provinces  that  he  was  able 
to  bring  into  the  field  an  army  of  four  hundred 
thousand  horse.  His  desire  for  sovereignty  led  him 
to  throw  off  his  allegiance,  the  more  so  as  another 
rebel  against  the  Grand  Khan  promised  to  aid  him 
with  a  hundred  thousand  horsemen. 

News  of  this  movement  soon  reached  Kublai,  and 
he  at  once  ordered  the  collection  of  all  the  troops 
within  ten  days'  march  of  Kambalu,  amounting  in 
all  to  four  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  men.  By 
forced  marches  these  were  brought  to  Nayan's  terri- 
tory in  twenty-five  days,  reaching  there  before  the 
rebel  prince  had  any  warning  of  their  approach. 
Kublai,  having  given  his  army  two  days'  rest,  and 
consulted  his  astrologers,  who  promised  him  victory, 
marched  his  army  up  the  hill  which  bad  concealed 
them  from  the  enemy,  the  great  array  being  suddenly 
displayed  to  the  astonished  eyes  of  Nayan  and  his 
men. 

Kublai  took  his  station  in  a  large  wooden  castle, 
borne  on  the  backs  of  four  elephants,  whose  bodies 
were  protected  with  coverings  of  thick  leather  hard- 
ened by  fire,  over  which  were  spread  housings  of 
cloth  of  gold.  His  army  was  disposed  in  three  grand 
divisions,  each  division  consisting  of  ten  battalions 
of  horsemen  each  ten  thousand  strong,  and  armed 
with  the  great  Mongol  bow.  The  right  and  left  di- 
visions were  disposed  so  as  to  outflank  the  army  of 
Nayan.  In  front  of  each  battalion  were  stationed 


THE  PALACE  OP  KUBLAI  KHAN.        261 

five  hundred  infantry,  who,  whenever  the  cavalry 
made  a  show  of  flight,  were  trained  to  mount  behind 
them,  and  to  alight  again  when  they  returned  to  the 
charge,  their  duty  being  to  kill  with  their  lances  the 
horses  of  the  enemy. 

As  soon  as  the  order  of  battle  was  arranged,  wind 
instruments  of  various  kinds  and  in  great  numbers 
were  sounded,  while  the  host  of  warriors  broke  into 
song,  as  was  the  Tartar  practice  before  engaging  in 
battle.  The  battle  began  with  a  signal  from  the  cym- 
bals and  drums,  the  sound  of  the  instruments  and  the 
singing  growing  deafening.  At  the  signal  both  wings 
advanced,  a  cloud  of  arrows  filling  the  air,  while  on 
both  sides  numbers  of  men  and  horses  fell.  Their 
arrows  discharged,  the  warriors  engaged  in  close 
combat  with  lances,  swords,  and  iron-shod  maces, 
while  the  cries  of  men  and  horses  were  such  as  to 
inspire  terror  or  rouse  all  hearers  to  the  battle-rage. 

For  a  long  time  the  fortune  of  the  day  remained 
undecided,  Nayan's  people  fighting  with  great  zeal 
and  courage.  But  at  length  their  leader,  seeing  that 
he  was  almost  surrounded,  attempted  to  save  himself 
by  flight.  He  was  made  prisoner,  however,  and 
brought  before  Kublai,  who  ordered  him  to  be  put 
to  death  on  the  spot.  This  was  done  by  enclosing 
him  between  two  carpets,  which  were  violently 
shaken  until  the  spirit  departed  from  the  body,  the 
dignity  of  the  imperial  family  requiring  that  the 
sun  and  the  air  should  not  witness  the  shedding  of 
the  blood  of  one  who  belonged  to  the  royal  stock. 

These  extracts  from  the  narrative  of  the  Venetian 
traveller  may  be  fitly  followed  by  a  portion  of 


262  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

Coleridge's  remarkable  dream-poem  on  the  subject 
of  Kublai's  palace.  The  poet,  having  been  reading 
from  "  Purchas's  Pilgrimage"  a  brief  description  of 
the  palace  of  the  Great  Kban, — not  the  one  above 
described,  but  a  pleasure-retreat  in  another  section 
of  his  dominions, — fell  asleep,  and  his  dreams  took 
the  form  of  an  extended  poem  on  the  subject.  On 
waking  he  hastened  to  write  it  down,  but  was  inter- 
rupted by  a  visitor  in  the  midst  of  his  task,  and 
afterwards  found  himself  unable  to  recall  another 
line  of  the  poem,  only  a  shadowy  image  of  which 
remained  in  his  mind.  The  part  saved  is  strangely 
imaginative. 

In  Xanadu  did  Kubla  Khan 
A  stately  pleasure-dome  decree, 

"Where  Alph,  the  sacred  river,  ran 

Through  caverns  measureless  to  man 

Down  to  a  sunless  sea. 
So  twice  five  miles  of  fertile  ground 
With  walls  and  towers  were  girdled  round ; 
And  here  were  gardens  bright  with  sinuous  rills, 
Where  blossomed  many  an  incense-bearing  tree ; 
And  here  were  forests  ancient  as  the  hills, 
Enfolding  sunny  spots  of  greenery. 

But  oh  1  that  deep  romantic  chasm  which  slanted 

Down  the  green  hill  athwart  a  cedarn  cover! 

A  savage  place  !  as  holy  and  enchanted 

As  e'er  beneath  a  waning  moon  was  haunted 

By  woman  wailing  for  her  demon  lover ! 

And  from  this  chasm,  with  ceaseless  turmoil  seething, 

As  if  this  earth  in  fast  thick  pants  were  breathing, 

A  mighty  fountain  momently  was  forced, 

Amid  whose  swift  half-intermitted  burst 


THE   PALACE   OF   KUBLAI   KHAN.  263 

Huge  fragments  vaulted  like  rebounding  hail, 
Or  chaffy  grain  beneath  the  thresher's  flail ; 
And  'mid  these  dancing  rocks  at  once  and  ever 
It  flung  up  momently  the  sacred  river. 
Five  miles  meandering  with  a  mazy  motion 
Through  wood  and  dale  the  sacred  river  ran, 
Then  reached  the  caverns  measureless  to  man, 
And  sank  in  tumult  to  a  lifeless  ocean : 
And  'mid  this  tumult  Eubla  heard  from  far 
Ancestral  voices  prophesying  war. 


THE  EXPULSION  OF  THE 
MONGOLS. 

WHILE  the  descendants  of  Kublai  Khan,  the  Mon- 
gol emperor,  still  held  the  reins  of  power  in  China, 
there  was  born  in  humble  life  in  that  empire  a  boy 
upon  whose  shoulders  fortune  had  laid  the  tusk  of 
driving  the  foreigners  from  the  soil  and  restoring  to 
the  Chinese  their  own  again.  Tradition  says  that  at 
his  birth  the  room  was  several  times  filled  with  a 
bright  light.  However  that  be,  the  boy  proved  to 
be  gifted  by  nature  with  a  fine  presence,  lofty  views, 
and  an  elevated  soul,  qualities  sure  to  tell  in  the 
troubled  times  that  were  at  hand.  When  he  was 
seventeen  years  of  age  the  deaths  of  his  father  and 
mother  left  him  a  penniless  orphan,  so  destitute  of 
means  that  be  felt  obliged  to  take  the  vows  of  a 
priest  and  enter  the  monastery  of  Hoangkiose.  But 
the  country  was  now  in  disorder,  rebels  were  in 
the  field  against  the  Mongol  rule,  and  the  patriotic 
and  active-minded  boy  could  not  long  endure  the 
passive  life  of  a  bonze.  Leaving  the  monastery,  he 
entered  the  service  of  one  of  the  rebel  leaders  as  a 
private  soldier,  and  quickly  showed  such  enterprise 
and  daring  that  his  chief  not  only  made  him  an 
officer  in  his  force  but  gave  him  his  daughter  in 
marriage. 

The  time  was  ripe  for  soldiers  of  fortune.  The 
264 


THE  EXPULSION   OP   THE   MONGOLS.  265 

mantle  of  Kublai  had  not  fallen  on  the  shoulders  of 
any  of  his  successors,  who  proved  weak  and  degen- 
erate monarchs,  losing  the  firm  hold  which  the 
great  conqueror  had  kept  upon  the  realm.  It  was 
in  the  year  1345  that  Choo  Yuen  Chang,  to  give  the 
young  soldier  his  full  name,  joined  the  rebel  band. 
Chunti,  one  of  the  weakest  of  the  Mongol  monarchs, 
was  now  upon  the  throne,  and  on  every  side  it  was 
evident  that  the  empire  of  Kublai  was  in  danger  of 
falling  to  pieces  under  this  incapable  ruler.  Fortune 
had  brought  its  protege  into  the  field  at  a  critical 
time. 

Choo  was  not  long  in  proving  himself  "  every  inch 
a  soldier."  Wherever  he  fought  he  was  victorious. 
In  a  year's  time  he  had  under  him  seven  hundred 
men  of  his  own  enlistment,  and  was  appointed  the 
lieutenant  of  his  chief.  Soon  after  the  latter  died, 
and  Choo  took  his  place  at  the  head  of  the  rebel 
band.  In  it  enlisted  another  young  man,  Suta  by 
name,  who  was  before  many  years  to  become  China's 
greatest  general  and  the  bulwark  of  a  new  dynasty. 

Choo  was  now  able  to  prove  his  powers  on  a  larger 
scale.  One  of  his  first  exploits  was  the  capture  of 
the  town  of  Hoyan,  where  he  manifested  a  high 
order  of  courage  and  political  wisdom  in  saving  the 
inhabitants  from  rapine  by  his  ill-paid  and  hungry 
soldiers.  Here  was  a  degree  of  self  restraint  and 
power  of  command  which  none  of  the  Chinese 
leaders  had  .*hown,  and  which  seemed  to  point  out 
Choo  as  the  man  destined  to  win  in  the  coming 
struggle  for  a  rejuvenated  China. 

Meanwhile  a  rival  came  into  the  field  who  for  a 


266  HISTORICAL   TALKS. 

time  threw  Choo's  fortunes  into  the  shade.  This 
was  a  young  man  who  was  offered  to  the  people  as  a 
descendant  of  the  dynasty  of  the  Sungs,  the  em- 
perors whom  the  Mongol  invaders  had  dethroned. 
His  very  name  proved  a  centre  of  attraction  for  the 
people,  whose  affection  for  the  old  royal  house  was 
not  dead,  and  they  gathered  in  multitudes  beneath 
his  banner.  But  his  claim  also  aroused  the  fear  of 
the  Mongols,  and  a  severe  and  stubborn  struggle  set 
in,  which  ended  in  the  overthrow  of  the  youthful 
Sung  and  the  seeming  restoration  of  the  Mongol 
authority.  Yet  in  reality  the  war  had  only  cleared 
the  way  for  a  far  more  dangerous  adversary  than  the 
defeated  claimant  of  the  throne. 

Masked  by  this  war,  the  strength  and  influence  of 
Choo  had  steadily  grown,  and  in  1356  be  made  a 
daring  and  masterly  move  in  the  capture  of  the  city 
of  Nanking,  which  gave  him  control  of  some  of  the 
wealthiest  provinces  of  the  land.  Here  he  showed 
the  same  moderation  as  before,  preserving  the  citi- 
zens from  plunder  and  outrage,  and  proving  that  his 
only  purpose  was  to  restore  to  China  her  old  native 
government.  With  remarkable  prudence,  skill,  and 
energy  he  strengthened  his  position.  "  The  time  has 
now  come  to  drive  the  foreigners  out  of  China,"  he 
said,  in  a  proclamation  that  was  scattered  far  and 
wide  and  brought  hosts  of  the  young  and  daring  to 
his  ranks.  Elsewhere  the  so-called  Chinese  patriots 
were  no  better  than  brigands,  all  the  horrors  of  war 
descending  upon  the  districts  they  occupied  and  the 
cities  which  fell  into  their  hands.  But  where  Choo 
ruled  discipline  and  security  prevailed,  and  as  far  as 


THE   EXPULSION   OP   THE    MONGOLS.  267 

his  power  reached  a  firm  and  orderly  government 
existed. 

Meanwhile  the  Mongols  had  a  host  of  evils  with 
which  to  contend.  Rebel  leaders  had  risen  in  various 
quarters,  some  of  them  making  more  progress  than 
Choo,  but  winning  the  execration  rather  than  the 
love  of  the  people  by  their  rapine  and  violence.  On 
the  contrary,  his  power  grew  slowly  but  surely, 
various  minor  leaders  joining  him,  among  them  the 
pirate  Fangkue  Chin,  whose  exploits  had  made  him 
a  hero  to  the  people  of  the  valley  of  the  Kiang. 
The  events  of  the  war  that  followed  were  too  many 
to  be  here  detailed.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  diffi- 
culties of  the  Mongol  emperor  gradually  increased. 
He  was  obliged  to  meet  in  battle  a  Mongol  pre- 
tender to  his  throne;  Corea  rose  in  arms  and  de- 
stroyed an  army  sent  to  subdue  it ;  and  Chahan 
Timour,  Chuntrs  ablest  general,  fell  victim  to  an 
assassin.  Troubles  were  growing  thick  around  his 
throne. 

In  the  year  1366,  Choo,  after  vanquishing  some 
leaders  who  threatened  his  position,  among  them  his 
late  pirate  ally  Fangkue  Chin,  saw  that  the  time  had 
arrived  for  a  vigorous  effort  to  expel  the  foreign 
rulers,  and  set  out  at  the  head  of  his  army  for  a 
general  campaign,  at  the  same  time  proclaiming  to 
the  people  that  the  period  was  at  hand  for  throwing 
off  the  Mongol  yoke,  which  for  nearly  a  century  had 
weighed  heavily  upon  their  necks.  Three  armies 
left  Nanking,  two  of  them  being  sent  to  subdue  three 
of  the  provinces  of  the  south,  a  result  which  was 
achieved  without  a  blow,  the  people  everywhere 


268  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

rising  and  the  Mongol  garrisons  vanishing  from 
sight, — whether  by  death  or  by  flight  history  fails  to 
relate.  The  third  army,  under  Suta,  Choo's  favorite 
general,  marched  towards  Peking,  the  Mongol  gar- 
risons, discouraged  by  their  late  reverses,  retreating 
as  it  advanced. 

At  length  the  great  Mongol  capital  was  reached. 
Within  its  walls  reigned  confusion  and  alarm. 
Chunti,  panic-stricken  at  the  rapid  march  of  his 
enemies,  could  not  be  induced  to  fight  for  his  last 
hold  upon  the  empire  of  China,  but  fled  on  the  night 
before  the  assault  was  made.  Suta  at  once  ordered 
the  city  to  be  taken  by  storm,  and  though  the 
Mongol  garrison  made  a  desperate  defence,  they 
were  cut  down  to  a  man,  and  the  victorious  troops 
entered  the  Tartar  stronghold  in  triumph.  But 
Suta,  counselled  by  Choo  to  moderation,  held  his 
army  firmly  in  hand,  no  outrages  were  permitted, 
and  the  lives  of  all  the  Mongols  who  submitted  were 
spared. 

The  capture  of  Peking  and  the  flight  of  Chunti 
marked  the  end  of  the  empire  of  the  Mongols  in 
China.  War  with  them  still  went  on,  but  the  country 
at  large  was  freed  from  their  yoke,  after  nearly  a 
century  of  submission  to  Tartar  rule.  Elsewhere 
the  vast  empire  of  Genghis  still  held  firm.  Eussia 
lay  under  the  vassalage  of  the  khans.  Central  and 
Southern  Asia  trembled  at  the  Mongol  name.  And 
at  the  very  time  that  the  Chinese  were  rising  against 
and  expelling  their  invaders,  Timour,  or  Tamerlane, 
the  second  great  conqueror  of  his  race,  was  setting 
out  from  Central  Asia  on  that  mighty  career  of  vie- 


THE    EXPULSION   OP   THE   MONGOLS.  269 

tory  that  emulated  the  deeds  of  the  founder  of  the 
Mongol  empire.  Years  afterwards  Timour,  after 
having  drowned  Southern  Asia  in  a  sea  of  blood,  re- 
turned to  Samarcand,  where,  in  1415,  he  ordered  the 
collection  of  a  great  army  for  the  invasion  of  China, 
with  which  he  proposed  to  revenge  the  wrongs  of 
his  compatriots.  The  army  was  gathered  ;  it  began 
its  march ;  the  mountains  of  Khokand  were  reached 
and  passed ;  threats  of  the  coming  danger  reached 
and  frightened  China;  but  on  the  march  the  grim 
old  conqueror  died,  and  his  great  expedition  came  to 
an  end.  All  that  reached  China  to  represent  the 
mighty  Timour  was  his  old  war-horse,  which  was 
sent  as  a  present  four  years  afterwards  when  an  em- 
bassy from  Central  Asia  reached  Peking. 

With  the  fall  of  the  Mongols  in  China  the  native 
rule  was  restored,  but  not  with  it  the  old  dynasty. 
Choo,  the  conqueror,  and  a  man  whose  ability  and 
nobleness  of  mind  had  been  remarkably  displayed, 
was  everywhere  looked  upon  as  the  Heaven-chosen 
successor  to  the  throne,  the  boy  who  had  begun  his 
career  as  a  penniless  orphan  having  risen  through 
pure  power  of  intellect  and  loftiness  of  soul  to  the 
highest  position  in  the  realm.  He  was  crowned  em- 
peror under  the  title  of  Hongwou,  and  instituted  the 
Ming  dynasty,  which  held  the  throne  of  China  until 
three  centuries  afterwards,  when  another  strange 
turn  in  the  tide  of  affairs  again  overthrew  Chinese 
rule  and  brought  a  new  dynasty  of  Tartar  emperors 
to  the  throne. 

As  regards  the  reign  of  Hongwou,  it  may  here  be 
said  that  he  proved  one  of  the  ablest  monarchs 


270  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

China  ever  knew,  ruling  his  people  with  a  just  and 
strong  hand,  and,  by  the  aid  of  bis  able  general  Suta, 
baffling  every  effort  of  the  Mongols  to  regain  their 
lost  dominion.  Luxury  in  the  imperial  adminis- 
tration was  brought  to  an  end,  the  public  money 
was  used  for  its  legitimate  purpose,  and  even  some 
of  the  costly  palaces  which  the  Mongol  emperors 
had  built  were  destroyed,  that  the  people  might  learn 
that  he  proposed  to  devote  himself  to  their  good 
and  not  to  his  own  pleasure.  Steps  were  taken  for 
the  encouragement  of  learning,  the  literary  class 
was  elevated  in  position,  the  celebrated  Hanlin  Col- 
lege was  restored,  and  the  great  book  of  laws  was 
revised.  Schools  were  opened  everywhere,  orphan- 
ages and  hospitals  were  instituted,  and  all  that  could 
be  was  done  for  the  relief  of  the  sick  and  the  poor. 
All  this  was  performed  in  the  midst  of  bitter  and 
unceasing  wars,  which  for  nearly  twenty  years  kept 
Suta  almost  constantly  in  the  field.  The  Mongols 
were  still  strong  in  the  northwest,  Chungti  continued 
to  claim  imperial  power,  and  the  army  was  kept 
steadily  employed,  marching  from  victory  to  victory 
under  the  able  leadership  of  Suta,  who  in  his  whole 
career  scarcely  learned  the  meaning  of  defeat.  His 
very  appearance  on  the  field  on  more  than  one  oc- 
casion changed  the  situation  from  doubt  to  victory. 
In  time  the  Mongols  were  driven  beyond  the  Great 
Wall,  the  ex-emperor  died,  and  the  steppes  were  in- 
vaded by  a  great  army,  though  not  a  successful  one, 
Suta  meeting  here  his  first  and  only  reverse.  The 
war  ended  with  giving  the  Chinese  full  control  of 
all  the  cultivated  country,  while  the  Tartars  held 


THE   EXPULSION   OP   THE   MONGOLS.  271 

their  own  in  the  desert.  This  done,  Suta  returned 
to  enjoy  in  peace  the  honors  he  had  won,  and  soon 
after  died,  at  the  age  of  fifty-four  years,  thirty  of 
which  had  been  spent  in  war. 

The  death  of  the  great  general  did  not  leave  China 
free  from  warlike  commotion.  There  were  rebellious 
risings  both  in  the  south  and  in  the  north,  but  they  all 
fell  under  the  power  of  Hongwou's  victorious  arms, 
the  last  success  being  the  dispersal  of  a  final  Mon- 
gol raid.  The  closing  eight  years  of  the  emperor's 
reign  were  spent  in  peace,  and  in  1397  he  died,  after 
an  administration  of  thirty  years,  in  which  he  had 
freed  China  from  the  last  dregs  of  the  Mongol 
power,  and  spread  peace  and  prosperity  throughout 
the  realm. 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  MANCHUS. 

TWICE  had  a  Tartar  empire  been  established  in 
China,  that  of  the  Kin  dynasty  in  the  north,  and 
that  of  their  successors,  the  Mongols,  over  the  whole 
country.  A  third  and  more  permanent  Tartar  dy- 
nasty, that  of  the  Manchus,  was  yet  to  come.  With 
the  striking  story  of  the  rise  and  progress  of  these 
new  conquerors  we  are  now  concerned. 

In  the  northeast  of  China,  beyond  the  Great  Wall 
and  bordering  on  Corea,  lies  the  province  of  Liau- 
tung.  Northward  from  this  to  the  Amur  Eiver 
extends  the  eastern  section  of  the  steppes,  known 
on  modern  maps  as  Manchuria.  From  these  broad 
wilds  the  Kins  had  advanced  to  their  conquest  of 
Northern  China.  To  them  they  fled  for  safety  from 
the  Mongol  arms,  and  here  lost  their  proud  name  of 
Kin  and  resumed  their  older  and  humbler  one  of 
Niuche.  For  some  five  centuries  they  remained  here 
unnoticed  and  undisturbed,  broken  up  into  numerous 
small  clans,  none  of  much  strength  and  importance. 
Of  these  clans,  which  were  frequently  in  a  state  of 
hostility  to  one  another,  there  is  only  one  of  interest, 
that  of  the  Manchus. 

The  original  seat  of  this  small  Tartar  clan  lay  not 

far  north  of  the  Chinese  border,  being  on  the  Soodsu 

Eiver,  about  thirty  miles  east  of  the  Chinese  city  of 

Moukden.    Between  the  Soodsu  and  Jiaho  streams, 

272 


THE   RISE  OP   THE   MANCHUS.  273 

and  south  of  the  Long  White  Mountains,  lies  the 
valley  of  Hootooala,  a  location  of  rugged  and  pic- 
turesque scenery.  This  valley,  protected  on  three 
sides  by  water  and  on  the  fourth  by  a  lofty  range  of 
mountains,  the  whole  not  more  than  twelve  miles 
long,  formed  the  cradle  of  the  Manchu  race,  the 
narrow  realm  from  which  they  were  to  emerge  to 
victory  and  empire.  In  a  certain  respect  it  resembled 
the  native  home  of  the  Mongols,  but  was  far  smaller 
and  much  nearer  the  Chinese  frontier. 

In  this  small  and  secluded  valley  appeared,  about 
the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  when  the  em- 
peror Hongwou  was  fighting  with  the  Mongols,  a 
man  named  Aisin  Gioro.  Tradition  attributes  to  him 
a  miraculous  birth,  while  calumny  asserts  that  he  was 
a  runaway  Mongol ;  but  at  any  rate  he  became  lord 
of  Hootooala  and  ancestor  of  its  race  of  conquerors. 
Five  generations  from  him  came  a  chief  named  Huen, 
who  ruled  over  the  same  small  state,  and  whose  grand- 
son, Noorhachu  by  name,  born  in  1559,  was  the  man 
upon  whom  the  wonderful  fortunes  of  the  Manchus 
were  to  depend.  Like  many  other  great  conquerors, 
his  appearance  predicted  his  career.  "  He  had  the 
dragon  face  and  the  phoenix  eye ;  his  chest  was  enor- 
mous, his  ears  were  large,  and  his  voice  had  the  tone 
of  the  largest  bell." 

He  began  life  like  many  of  the  heroes  of  folk-lore, 
his  step  mother,  when  he  was  nineteen  years  of  age, 
giving  him  a  small  sum  of  money  and  turning  him 
out  into  the  world  to  seek  his  fortune.  She  repented 
afterwards,  and  bade  him  come  home  again  or  accept 
further  aid,  hut  the  proud  youth  refused  to  receive 

18 


274  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

from  her  any  assistance,  and  determined  to  make  his 
own  way  in  the  world. 

Noorhachu  first  came  into  notice  in  1583.  In  that 
year  Haida,  chief  of  a  small  district  south  of  Hoo- 
tooala,  made  an  attack,  assisted  by  the  Chinese, 
on  some  neighboring  clans.  One  of  these  was  gov- 
erned by  a  relative  of  the  old  Manchu  chief  Huen, 
who,  with  his  son  and  a  small  force,  hurried  to  his 
aid  and  helped  him  to  defend  his  town.  Haida  and 
his  allies,  finding  the  place  too  strong  for  them,  en- 
ticed a  part  of  the  garrison  outside  the  walla,  and 
then  fell  upon  and  treacherously  massacred  them. 
Among  the  slain  were  Huen  and  his  son. 

This  brutal  murder  left  Noorhachu  chief  of  his 
clan,  and  at  the  same  time  filled  him  with  a  fierce 
desire  for  revenge,  both  upon  Haida  and  upon  the 
Chinese.  He  was  forced  to  bide  his  time,  Haida 
gaining  such  influence  with  his  allies  that  he  was 
appointed  by  them  chief  of  all  the  Niuche  districts. 
This  act  only  deepened  the  hatred  of  Noorhachu, 
who  found  himself  made  one  of  the  vassals  of  the 
murderer,  while  many  of  his  own  people  left  him 
and  attached  themselves  to  the  fortunes  of  Haida. 

Fortunately  for  the  youthful  chief,  the  Chinese 
did  not  strongly  support  their  nominee,  and  Noor- 
hachu pursued  his  rival  so  persistently  that  the 
assassin  did  not  feel  safe  even  within  his  stockaded 
camp,  but  several  times  retreated  for  safety  into 
Liautung.  The  Chinese  at  length,  tired  of  support- 
ing a  man  without  the  courage  to  defend  himself, 
seized  him  and  handed  him  over  to  Noorhachu,  who 
immediately  put  him  to  death. 


THE   RISE   OF  THE   MANCHtTS.  275 

The  energy  and  success  of  Noorhachu  in  this 
scheme  of  vengeance  gave  him  a  high  reputation 
among  the  Niuche.  He  was  still  but  twenty-seven 
years  of  age,  but  had  probably  laid  out  his  life-work, 
that  of  making  himself  chief  of  a  Niuche  confeder- 
acy, and  employing  bis  subjects  in  an  invasion  of 
Chinese  soil.  It  is  said  that  he  had  sworn  to  revenge 
his  father's  death  by  the  slaughter  of  two  hundred 
thousand  Chinese. 

He  began  by  building  himself  a  stronghold.  Se- 
lecting a  site  in  the  plain  where  water  was  abundant, 
he  built  a  town  and  surrounded  it  with  a  triple  wall. 
This  done,  he  began  the  work  of  uniting  the  southern 
clans  under  his  sway,  a  task  which  proved  easy,  they 
being  much  impressed  by  his  victory  over  Haida. 
This  peaceful  progress  was  succeeded  by  a  warlike 
movement.  In  1591  he  suddenly  invaded  the  dis 
trict  of  Yalookiang,  which,  taken  by  surprise,  was 
forced  to  submit  to  his  arms. 

Tins  act  of  spoliation  roused  general  apprehension 
among  the  chiefs.  Here  was  a  man  who  was  not 
satisfied  with  petty  feuds,  but  evidently  had  higher 
objects  in  view.  Roused  by  apprehension  of  danger, 
seven  of  the  neighboring  chiefs  gathered  their  forces, 
and  with  an  army  of  thirty  thousand  Niuche  and 
Mongols  invaded  the  territory  of  the  daring  young 
leader.  The  odds  against  him  seemed  irresistible. 
He  had  but  four  thousand  men  to  oppose  to  this 
large  force.  But  his  men  had  been  well  chosen  and 
well  trained,  and  they  so  vigorously  resisted  the 
onset  of  the  enemy  that  the  principal  Niuche  chief 
was  killed  and  the  Mongol  leader  forced  to  flee.  At 


276  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

this  juncture  Noorhachu  charged  his  foes  with  such 
vigor  that  they  were  broken  and  put  to  flight,  four 
thousand  of  them  being  slain  in  the  pursuit.  A 
number  of  chiefs  were  taken  prisoners,  while  the 
spoils  included  several  thousand  horses  and  plaited 
suits  of  armor,  material  of  great  value  to  the  am- 
bitious young  victor. 

Eight  years  passed  before  Noorhaclm  was  ready 
for  another  move.  Then  he  conquered  and  annexed 
the  fertile  district  of  Hada,  on  the  north.  In  1607 
he  added  to  this  the  state  of  Hwifa,  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  that  of  Woola.  These  conquests  were 
preliminary  to  an  invasion  of  Yeho,  the  most  power- 
ful of  the  Niuche  states.  His  first  attack  upon 
this  important  district  failed,  and  before  repeating 
it  he  deemed  it  necessary  to  show  his  strength  by 
invading  the  Chinese  province  of  Liautung.  He  had 
long  been  preparing  for  this  great  enterprise.  He  had 
begun  his  military  career  with  a  force  of  one  hundred 
men,  but  had  now  an  army  forty  thousand  strong, 
well  drilled  and  disciplined  men,  provided  with  en- 
gines of  war,  and  of  a  race  famed  for  courage  and 
intrepidity.  Their  chief  weapon  consisted  of  the 
formidable  Manchu  bow,  while  the  horsemen  wore 
an  armor  of  cotton-plaited  mail  which  was  proof 
against  arrow  or  spear.  The  invasion  was  preceded 
by  a  list  of  grievances  drawn  up  against  the  Chinese, 
which,  instead  of  forwarding  it  to  the  Chinese  court, 
Noorhachu  burnt  in  presence  of  his  army,  as  an  ap- 
peal to  Heaven  for  the  justice  of  his  cause. 

The  Chinese  had  supinely  permitted  this  danger- 
ous power  to  grow  up  among  their  tributaries  on 


THE   RISE   OP   THE   MANCHUS.  277 

the  north.  In  truth,  the  Ming  dynasty,  which  had 
begun  with  the  great  Hongwou,  had  shared  the  fate 
of  Chinese  dynasties  in  general,  having  fallen  into 
decadence  and  decay.  With  a  strong  hand  at  the 
imperial  helm  the  Manchu  invasion,  with  only  a 
thinly  settled  region  to  draw  on  for  recruits,  would 
have  been  hopeless.  With  a  weak  hznd  no  one  could 
predict  the  result. 

In  1618  the  Manchus  crossed  their  southern  fron- 
tier and  boldly  set  foot  on  the  soil  of  China,  their 
movement  being  so  sudden  and  unexpected  that  the 
border  town  of  Fooshun  was  taken  almost  without 
a  blow.  The  army  sent  to  retake  it  was  hurled  back 
in  defeat,  and  the  strong  town  of  Tsingho  was  next 
besieged  and  captured.  The  progress  of  Noorhachu 
was  checked  at  this  point  by  the  clamor  of  his  men, 
who  were  unwilling  to  march  farther  while  leaving 
the  hostile  state  of  Yeho  in  their  rear.  He  there- 
fore led  them  back  to  their  homes. 

The  Chinese  were  now  thoroughly  aroused.  An 
army  of  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  men  was 
raised  and  sent  to  attack  Noorhachu  in  his  native 
realm.  But  it  was  weakly  commanded  and  un- 
wisely divided  into  three  unsupported  sections, 
which  the  Manchus  attacked  and  routed  in  detail. 
The  year's  work  was  completed  by  the  conquest  and 
annexation  of  Yeho,  an  event  which  added  thirty 
thousand  men  to  Noorhachu's  resources  and  com- 
pleted the  confederation  of  the  Niuche  clans,  which 
had  been  his  original  plan. 

The  old  Chinese  emperor  was  now  near  his  life's 
end.  But  his  last  act  was  one  of  his  wisest  ones,  it 


278  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

being  the  appointment  of  Tingbi,  a  leader  of  skill 
and  resolution,  to  the  command  in  Liautung.  In  a 
brief  time  this  energetic  commander  had  placed  the 
capital  and  the  border  towns  of  the  province  in  a 
state  of  defence  and  collected  an  army  of  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  thousand  men  on  the  frontier.  Two 
years  sufficed  to  make  the  province  impregnable 
to  Manchu  attack.  During  this  period  of  energy 
Noorhachu  wisely  remained  quiet.  But  the  Chinese 
emperor  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son.  who 
quickly  followed  him  to  the  grave.  His  grandson,  a 
boy  of  sixteen,  succeeded,  and  the  court  enemies  of 
Tingbi  now  had  him  recalled  and  replaced  by  a  man 
who  had  never  seen  a  battle. 

The  result  was  what  might  have  been  expected. 
Noorhachu,  who  had  been  waiting  his  opportunity, 
at  once  led  his  army  across  the  borders  (1621), 
marching  upon  the  strong  town  of  Moukden,  whose 
commandant,  more  brave  than  wise,  left  the  shelter 
of  his  walls  to  meet  him  in  the  field.  The  result  was 
a  severe  repulse,  the  Manchus  entering  the  gates  with 
the  fugitives  and  slaughtering  the  garrison  in  the 
streets.  Three  armies  were  sent  to  retake  Moukden, 
but  were  so  vigorously  dealt  with  that  in  a  few 
weeks  less  than  half  Tingbi's  strong  army  remained. 
Liauyang,  the  capital  of  the  province,  was  next  be- 
sieged and  taken  by  storm,  the  garrison  falling  al- 
most to  a  man,  among  them  Tingbi's  incapable  suc- 
cessor meeting  his  death.  No  further  resistance 
was  made,  the  other  towns,  with  one  exception, 
opened  their  gates,  and  in  a  brief  time  Noorhachu 
completed  the  conquest  of  the  province  of  Liautung. 


THE   RISE  OF   THE   MANCHFS.  279 

Only  one  thing  kept  the  Manchus  from  crossing 
the  Great  Wall  and  invading  the  provinces  beyond. 
This  was  the  stronghold  of  Ningyuen,  which  a  Chi- 
nese officer  named  Chungwan  had  reinforced  with  a 
small  party,  and  which  resolutely  resisted  all  assaults. 
Noorhachu,  not  daring  to  leave  this  fortified  place 
in  his  rear,  besieged  it  with  a  strong  army,  making 
two  desperate  assaults  upon  its  walls.  But  Chung- 
wan,  assisted  by  some  European  cannon,  whose  noise 
proved  more  terrible  to  the  Manchus  than  their  balls, 
held  out  so  vigorously  that  for  the  first  time  in 
his  career  the  Manchu  chief  met  with  defeat.  Dis- 
appointed and  sick  at  heart,  he  retraced  his  steps  to 
Moukden,  then  his  capital,  there  to  end  his  career, 
his  death  taking  place  in  September,  1626. 

Such  was  the  adventurous  life  of  the  man  who, 
while  not  conquering  China  himself,  made  its  con- 
quest possible  to  his  immediate  successors,  who  ac- 
knowledged his  great  deeds  by  giving  him  the  post- 
humous title  of  Emperor  of  China,  the  Manchu  dy- 
nasty dating  its  origin  back  to  1616.  His  son,  Tai- 
tsong,  who  succeeded  him,  renewed  the  attack  on 
Ningyuen,  but  found  the  heroic  Chungwan  more 
than  his  match.  A  brilliant  idea  brought  him  final 
success.  Leaving  the  impregnable  stronghold  in  his 
rear,  he  suddenly  marched  to  the  Great  Wall,  which 
he  crossed,  and  was  far  on  the  road  to  Peking  be- 
fore Chungwan  knew  of  his  purpose.  At  once  aban- 
doning the  town,  the  Chinese  general  hurried  south- 
ward, and,  having  the  best  road,  succeeded  in  reach- 
ing the  capital  in  advance  of  the  Manchus.  But  he 
came  only  to  his  death.  Tingbi,  the  one  man  feared 


280  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

by  Noorhachu,  had  been  executed  through  the  ma- 
chinations of  his  enemies,  and  now  Chungwan  suf- 
ered  the  same  fate,  Taitsong,  not  being  able  to  defeat 
him  in  the  field,  having  succeeded  in  forming  a  plot 
against  him  in  the  palace. 

But  Peking,  though  in  serious  peril,  was  not  taken. 
A  truce  was  arranged,  and  Taitsong  drew  off  his 
troops — for  reasons  best  known  to  himself.  He 
was  soon  back  in  China,  but  did  not  again  attack 
Peking,  devoting  himself  to  raids  through  the  bor- 
der provinces.  In  1635  he  assumed  the  title  of  Em- 
peror of  China,  in  consequence  of  the  seal  of  the 
Mongol  dynasty,  which  had  been  lost  in  Mongolia 
two  centuries  before,  being  found  and  sent  to  him. 
But  Ningyuen  still  held  out,  under  an  able  successor 
to  Chungwan,  and  in  September,  1643,  this  second 
of  the  Manchu  leaders  came  to  his  death.  The  con- 
quest of  China  was  reserved  for  a  later  leader. 


THE  MANCHU  CONQUEST  OF 
CHINA. 

LONG  years  of  misgovern ment  in  China  produced 
their  natural  result.  Evils  stalked  abroad  while 
worthless  emperors  spent  their  days  in  luxury  at 
home.  The  land  ceased  to  be  governed,  local  rebel- 
lions broke  out  in  a  dozen  quarters,  and  the  Manehu 
invasion  was  but  one  event  in  the  series  of  difficul- 
ties that  environed  the  weakened  throne.  From  the 
midst  of  these  small  rebellions  emerged  a  large  one 
before  which  the  Ming  dynasty  trembled  to  its  fall. 
Its  leader,  Li  Tseching,  was  a  peasant's  son,  who 
had  chosen  the  military  career  and  quickly  gained 
renown  as  a  daring  horseman  and  skilful  archer. 
In  1629  he  appeared  as  a  member  of  a  band  of  rob- 
bers, who  were  defeated  by  the  troops,  Li  being  one 
of  the  few  to  escape.  A  year  afterwards  we  hear  of 
him  as  high  in  rank  in  a  rebel  band  almost  large 
enough  to  be  called  an  army.  The  leader  dying 
after  a  few  years,  Li  succeeded  him  in  command. 

His  progress  to  power  was  rapid,  cunning  and  du- 
plicity aiding  him,  for  often  when  in  a  dangerous  sit- 
uation he  escaped  by  pretending  a  desire  to  come  to 
terms  with  the  authorities.  Other  rebels  rose,  won 
victories,  and  sank  again ;  but  Li  held  his  own  and 
steadily  grew  stronger,  until,  in  1640,  he  was  at  the 
head  of  an  army  of  nearly  half  a  million  of  men 

281 


282  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

and  in  a  position  to  aspire  to  the  throne  of  Peking 
itself.  Town  after  town  fell  into  his  hands,  frightful 
outrages  being  perpetrated  in  each,  for  Li  was  a 
brigand  in  grain  and  merciless  at  heart.  The  efforts 
of  the  emperor  to  overthrow  him  proved  futile,  the 
imperial  army  being  sent  against  him  in  four  divi- 
sions, which  he  attacked  and  defeated  in  detail.  The 
court  had  learned  nothing  from  the  failure  of  simi- 
lar tactics  in  the  war  with  Noorhachu.  After  this 
pronounced  success  Li  laid  siege  to  Kaifong,  an  im- 
portant city  which  had  once  been  the  capital  of 
China.  He  was  twice  repulsed,  but  a  third  time  re- 
turned to  the  siege,  finally  succeeding  through  a  rise 
in  the  Hoang-ho,  which  washed  away  the  defences  of 
the  city,  drowned  thousands  of  its  people,  and  left 
it  at  the  mercy  of  the  besieging  troops. 

Li's  next  effort  was  made  against  the  city  of  Tun- 
kwan,  the  most  formidable  of  Chinese  fortresses. 
Situated  in  the  mountains  between  the  provinces  of 
Honan  and  Shensi,  it  was  strong  by  position,  while 
the  labor  of  centuries  had  added  enormously  to  its 
strength.  Here  fortune  aided  him,  his  army  follow- 
ing into  the  city  a  fugitive  force  which  had  been 
beaten  outside.  By  this  time  the  rebel  chief  had 
made  himself  so  dreadful  a  record  by  the  massacres 
and  outrages  committed  in  conquered  cities  that  ter- 
ror began  to  fill  the  minds  of  garrisons,  and  towns 
and  cities  opened  their  gates  to  him  without  ven- 
turing resistance. 

No  longer  a  mere  rebel  chief,  but  master  of  more 
than  a  third  of  China,  and  feared  through  all  the 
rest,  Li  now  assumed  the  title  of  emperor,  and,  cap- 


THE   MANCHU   CONQUEST   OP   CHINA.  283 

luring  every  stronghold  as  he  advanced,  began  his 
inarch  upon  Peking,  then  a  scene  of  unimaginable 
terror  and  confusion.  The  emperor,  who  had  hesi- 
tated to  flee,  found  flight  impossible  when  Li's  great 
army  invested  the  capital.  Defence  was  equally  im- 
possible, and  the  unhappy  weakling,  after  slaying  all 
the  women  of  the  palace,  ended  the  career  of  the 
Ming  dynasty  by  hanging  himself.  Li  was  quickly 
master  of  the  city,  where  the  ancestral  temple  of  the 
Mings  was  plundered  and  levelled  with  the  ground, 
and  all  the  kinsmen  of  the  royal  family  he  could 
seize  were  summarily  put  to  death.  Thus  was  com- 
pleted the  first  phase  of  a  remarkable  career,  in 
which  in  a  few  years  the  member  of  a  band  of  rob- 
bers became  master  of  the  most  populous  empire 
of  the  earth.  The  second  phase  was  to  be  one  of  a 
decline  in  fortune  still  more  rapid  than  had  been 
the  growth  of  the  first.  And  with  it  is  connected 
the  story  of  the  Manchu  invasion  and  conquest  of 
China. 

We  have  seen  in  the  preceding  tale  how  the  heroic 
Chungwan  held  the  fortress  of  Ningyuen  against  all 
the  efforts  of  Noorhachu,  the  Manchu  chief.  After 
his  death  Wou  Sankwei,  a  man  of  equal  valor  and 
skill,  repelled  Taitsong  and  his  Manchus  from  its 
walls.  This  city,  with  the  surrounding  territory, 
was  all  of  Northern  China  that  had  not  submitted  to 
Li,  who  now  made  earnest  efforts  by  lavish  promises 
to  win  Wou  over  to  his  side.  But  in  the  latter  he 
had  to  deal  with  a  man  who  neither  feared  nor 
trusted  him,  and  to  whose  mind  it  seemed  prefer- 
able that  even  the  Tartars  should  become  lords  of 


284  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

the  empire  than  that  it  should  be  left  to  the  mercy 
of  a  brutal  robber  like  Li  Tseching. 

Wou's  position  was  a  delicate  and  difficult  one. 
The  old  dynasty  was  at  an  end.  Those  loyal  to  it 
were  powerless.  He  had  no  means  of  his  own  en- 
abling him  to  contend  against  the  great  force  of  Li. 
He  must  surrender  or  call  in  foreigners  to  his  aid. 
In  this  dilemma  he  made  overtures  to  the  Mancbus, 
asking  their  aid  to  put  down  the  rebellion  and  re- 
store tranquillity  to  the  empire, — seemingly  with  the 
thought  that  they  might  be  dispensed  with  when  no 
longer  of  use. 

Not  for  a  moment  did  the  Manchu  leaders  hesitate 
to  avail  themselves  of  the  promising  offer.  The  man 
who  for  years  had  stood  resolutely  in  the  way  of  their 
invasion  of  China  was  now  voluntarily  stepping  from 
their  path,  and  even  offering  them  his  aid  to  ac- 
complish their  cherished  project.  The  powerful  for- 
tresses which  had  defied  their  strength,  the  Great 
Wall  which  in  Wou's  hands  might  have  checked 
their  progress,  had  suddenly  ceased  to  be  obstacles 
to  their  advance,  and  throughout  the  camps  and 
towns  of  the  Tartars  an  enthusiastic  response  was 
made  to  the  inspiriting  cry  of  "  On  to  Peking !" 

Wou  Sankwei  did  not  wait  for  their  coming.  Li 
had  sent  a  strong  force  to  meet  him,  with  instructions 
either  to  negotiate  or  to  fight.  Wou  chose  the  latter, 
and  delivered  battle  with  such  energy  and  success 
that  more  than  twenty  thousand  of  the  opposing  force 
were  laid  in  death  upon  the  field,  no  quarter  being 
given  to  the  flying  host.  News  of  this  perilous  re- 
verse roused  Li  to  vigorous  action.  Knowing  nothing 


THE   MANCHU   CONQUEST   OP   CHINA.  285 

of  the  approach  of  a  Tartar  army,  he  imagined  that 
he  had  only  Wou  with  whom  to  deal,  and  marched 
against  him  in  person  with  sixty  thousand  men,  the 
pick  of  his  victorious  army. 

This  large  force,  perhaps  three  times  the  number 
that  the  loyal  leader  could  put  in  the  field,  reached 
Wou's  station  on  the  river  Lanho  before  the  van- 
guard of  the  Manchus  had  appeared.  It  was  obvi- 
ously Wou's  policy  to  defer  the  action,  but  Li  gave 
him  no  opportunity,  making  at  once  an  impetuous 
attack,  his  line  being  formed  in  the  shape  of  a  cres- 
cent, with  the  design  of  overlapping  the  flanks  of  the 
foe.  Skilled  and  experienced  as  Wou  was,  the  small- 
ness  of  his  force  made  him  unable  to  avoid  this  move- 
ment of  his  enemy,  who,  from  a  hill  where  he  had 
taken  his  station  to  overlook  the  battle,  had  the  satis- 
faction of  seeing  the  opposing  army  completely  sur- 
rounded by  his  numerous  battalions.  Wou  and  his 
men  fought  with  desperate  courage,  but  it  was  evi- 
dent that  they  could  not  long  hold  out  against  such 
odds.  Fortunately  for  them,  at  this  critical  moment 
a  strong  Manchu  corps  reached  the  field,  and  at  once 
made  a  furious  charge  upon  the  nearly  victorious 
troops.  This  diversion  caused  a  complete  change  in 
the  situation.  Li's  troops,  filled  with  terror  at  the 
vigorous  and  unexpected  assault,  broke  and  fled,  pur- 
sued by  their  foes  with  such  bloodthirsty  fury  that 
thirty  thousand  of  them  were  slain.  Li  escaped  with 
a  few  hundred  horsemen  from  the  disastrous  field 
which  was  to  prove  the  turning-point  in  his  career. 

The  delayed  Manchus  soon  after  appeared  in  num- 
bers, and  Wou  lost  no  time  in  following  up  his  signal 


286  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

success.  Peking  was  quickly  reached,  and  there,  on 
the  eastern  ramparts,  the  victor  was  greeted  with 
the  spectacle  of  his  father's  head  on  the  wall,  Li 
having  thus  wreaked  what  vengeance  he  could  upon 
his  foe.  It  was  an  unwise  act  of  ferocity,  since  it 
rendered  impossible  any  future  reconciliation  with 
his  opponent. 

Li  made  no  effort  to  defend  the  city,  but  fled  pre- 
cipitately with  all  the  plunder  he  could  convey. 
"VVou,  marching  round  its  walls,  pressed  hard  upon 
his  track,  attacking  his  rear-guard  in  charge  of 
the  bulky  baggage-train,  and  defeating  it  with  the 
slaughter  of  ten  thousand  troops.  Li  continued  to 
retreat,  collecting  the  garrisons  he  had  left  in  various 
cities  as  he  fled,  until,  feeling  strong  enough  to  hazard 
another  battle,  he  took  his  stand  near  the  city  of 
Chingtung.  Wou  did  not  hesitate  to  attack.  Eighty 
thousand  Manchus  had  joined  him,  and  abundant 
Chinese  levies  had  raised  his  forces  to  two  hundred 
thousand  men.  The  battle  was  fierce  and  obstinate, 
Li  fighting  with  his  old  skill  and  courage,  and  night 
closed  without  giving  either  party  the  victory.  But 
under  cover  of  the  darkness  the  rebel  leader,  having 
lost  forty  thousand  men,  including  some  of  his  ablest 
officers,  deemed  it  necessary  to  resume  his  retreat. 

The  remainder  of  Li's  career  may  be  briefly  told. 
Wou  followed  him  with  unyielding  persistency, 
fighting  at  every  opportunity  and  being  always  the 
victor  in  these  encounters.  This  rapid  flight,  these 
repeated  defeats,  at  length  so  discouraged  the  rebel 
troops  that  on  Li's  making  a  final  stand  they  re- 
fused to  fight,  and  insisted  on  coming  to  terms 


THE   MANCHU   CONQUEST  OF   CHINA  287 

with  their  pursuer.  Finding  that  all  was  at  an 
end,  Li  fled  to  the  neighboring  mountain  region 
with  a  small  body  of  men,  and  there  returned  to  the 
robber  state  from  which  he  had  emerged.  But  his 
foe  was  implacable ;  pursuit  was  kept  up,  his  band 
lost  heavily  in  various  encounters,  and  at  length, 
while  on  a  foraging  trip  in  search  of  food,  he  was 
surprised  in  a  village  by  a  superior  force.  A  sharp 
combat  followed,  in  which  Li  was  the  first  to  fall, 
and  his  head  was  carried  in  triumph  to  the  nearest 
mandarin. 

Thus  ended  the  career  of  a  remarkable  man. 
Whatever  the  Chinese  thought  of  the  Mancbus,  they 
could  not  but  detest  the  cruel  bandit  whom  they 
supplanted,  and  who,  but  for  their  aid  and  the  cour- 
age of  a  single  opponent,  would  have  placed  himself 
upon  the  throne  of  China. 

Wou  Sankwei,  having  rid  himself  of  his  great 
enemy,  now  became  anxious  for  the  departure  of  his 
allies.  But  he  soon  found  that  they  had  no  intention 
of  leaving  Peking,  of  which  they  were  then  in  full 
control.  -At  their  head  was  Taitsong's  young  son, 
still  a  child,  yet  already  giving  evidence  of  much 
sagacity.  His  uncle,  Prince  Dorgan, — or  Ama  Wang 
(Father  Prince),  as  his  nephew  called  him, — was 
made  regent,  and  hastened  to  proclaim  the  youth 
emperor  of  China,  under  the  name  of  Chuntche. 
Every  effort  was  made  to  obtain  the  support  of  Wou 
Sankwei :  honors  and  titles  were  conferred  upon 
him,  and  the  new  government  showed  such  moder- 
ation and  sound  judgment  in  dealing  with  the  peo- 
ple as  to  win  him  to  its  support, — especially  as  no 


288  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

Chinese  candidate  for  the  throne  appeared  whose 
ability  promised  to  equal  that  of  the  young  Manchu 
prince. 

The  Manchus,  indeed,  were  far  from  being  rulers 
of  the  kingdom  as  yet.  They  held  only  a  few  prov- 
inces of  the  north,  and  a  prince  of  the  late  native 
dynasty  had  been  set  up  in  the  south,  with  his  capi- 
tal at  Nanking.  Had  he  been  a  capable  ruler,  with 
qualities  suited  to  call  Wou  Sankwei  to  his  sup- 
port and  enlist  the  energies  of  the  people,  the  tide 
of  Manchu  conquest  would  very  probably  have  been 
stayed.  But  he  proved  worthless,  and  Nanking 
was  soon  in  the  hands  of  his  foes,  its  officials  being 
spared,  but  required  to  shave  their  heads, — the  shaved 
head  and  the  pigtail  of  the  modern  Chinaman  being 
the  badge  of  submission  to  Tartar  supremacy. 

A  succession  of  new  emperors  was  set  up,  but  all 
met  the  same  fate,  and  in  the  end  the  millions  of 
China  fell  under  the  Manchu  yoke,  and  the  ancient 
empire  was  once  more  subjected  to  Tartar  rule.  The 
emperor  Chuntche  died  young,  and  his  son,  Kanghi, 
came  to  the  throne  when  but  nine  years  of  age.  He 
was  destined  to  reign  for  more  than  sixty  years  and 
to  prove  himself  one  of  the  best  and  greatest  of  the 
emperors  of  China. 

We  cannot  close  without  a  mention  of  the  final 
events  in  the  career  of  Wou  Sankwei,  to  whom 
China  owed  her  Manchu  dynasty.  Thirty  years 
after  he  had  invited  the  Manchus  into  the  country, 
and  while  he  was  lord  of  a  large  principality  in  the 
south,  he  was  invited  by  the  emperor  to  visit  Peking, 
an  invitation  which  he  declined  on  the  plea  of  old 


THE   MANCHU   CONQUEST   OF   CHINA.  289 

age,  though  really  because  he  feared  that  Tartar 
jealousy  of  his  position  and  influence  lay  behind  it. 
Envoys  were  sent  to  him,  whom  he  treated  with 
princely  courtesy,  though  he  still  declined  to  visit 
the  court,  and  plainly  stated  his  reasons.  The  per- 
sistence of  the  emperor  at  length  drove  him  into  re- 
bellion, in  which  he  was  joined  by  others  of  the 
Chinese  leaders,  and  for  a  time  the  unwisdom  of 
Kanghi  in  not  letting  well  enough  alone  threatened 
his  throne  with  disaster.  One  by  one,  however, 
Wou's  allies  were  put  down,  until  he  was  left  alone 
to  keep  up  the  war.  The  Manchus  hesitated,  how- 
ever, to  attack  him,  knowing  well  his  great  mili- 
tary skill.  But  disunion  in  his  ranks  did  what  the 
Tartar  sword  could  not  effect.  Many  of  his  ad- 
herents deserted  him,  and  the  Chinese  warrior  who 
had  never  known  defeat  was  brought  to  the  brink 
of  irretrievable  disaster.  From  this  dilemma  death 
extricated  him,  he  passing  away  at  the  head  of  his 
men  without  the  stigma  of  defeat  on  his  long  career 
of  victory.  In  the  end  his  body  was  taken  from  the 
tomb  and  his  ashes  were  scattered  through  the  eigh- 
teen provinces  of  China,  to  testify  that  no  trace 
remained  of  the  man  whom  alone  the  Manchus  had 
wooed  and  feared. 


19 


THE  CAREER  OF  A  DESERT 
CHIEF. 

IN  looking  upon  a  modern  map  of  the  empire  of 
China,  it  will  be  seen  to  cover  a  vast  area  in  Asia, 
including  not  only  China  proper  but  the  wide  plains 
of  Mongolia  and  the  rock-bound  region  of  Thibet. 
Yet  no  such  map  could  properly  have  been  drawn 
two  hundred  years  ago.  Thibet,  while  a  tributary 
realm,  was  not  then  a  portion  of  China,  while  the 
Mongolian  herdsmen  were  still  the  independent  war- 
riors and  the  persistent  enemies  of  China  that  they 
had  been  from  time  immemorial.  It  is  to  the  Man- 
chu  emperors  that  the  subjection  of  these  countries 
and  their  incorporation  in  the  Chinese  empire  are  due. 
To-day  the  far-reaching  territory  of  the  steppes,  the 
native  home  of  those  terrible  horsemen  who  for  ages 
made  Europe  and  Asia  tremble,  is  divided  between 
the  two  empires  of  China  and  Kussia,  and  its  rest- 
less hordes  are  held  in  check  by  firm  and  powerful 
hands,  their  period  of  conquest  at  an  end. 

It  was  to  two  of  the  Manchu  monarchs,  Kanghi 
and  Keen  Lung, — whose  combined  reigns  covered 
more  than  a  hundred  and  twenty  years, — that  the 
subjection  of  these  long  turbulent  regions  was  due, 
enabling  China  to  enter  the  nineteenth  century  with 
the  broad  territorial  expanse  now  marked  on  our 
maps.  The  story  of  how  the  subjection  of  the 
290 


THE   CAREER  OP   A   DESERT  CHIEF.  291 

nomads  came  about  is  a  long  one,  much  too  long 
for  the  space  at  our  command,  yet  a  brief  synopsis 
of  its  leading  events  will  prove  of  interest  and  im- 
portance to  all  who  desire  to  follow  the  successive 
steps  of  Chinese  history. 

Kanghi,  the  second  Manchu  emperor,  and  one  of 
the  greatest  of  the  rulers  of  China,  having  completed 
the  conquest  of  the  Chinese  themselves,  turned  his 
attention  to  the  nomadic  hordes  who  threatened  the 
tranquillity  of  his  reign.  He  was  one  of  their  own 
race,  a  man  of  Tartar  blood,  and  many  of  the  desert 
tribes  were  ready  to  acknowledge  his  supremacy, 
among  them  the  Khalkas,  who  prided  themselves 
on  direct  descent  from  Grhengis  and  his  warriors, 
but  had  lost  all  desire  to  rule  the  earth  and  were 
content  to  hold  their  own  among  the  surrounding 
tribes.  They  dwelt  on  those  streams  which  had 
watered  the  birthplace  of  the  Mongol  tribe,  and  their 
adhesion  to  the  Manchu  cause  kept  all  the  Mongols 
quiet. 

But  west  of  these  dwelt  another  nomad  race,  the 
Calmucks,  divided  into  four  hordes,  of  which  the 
Eleuths  were  by  no  means  content  to  yield  to  Chinese 
or  Manchu  control.  Their  independence  of  spirit 
might  have  been  of  little  importance  but  that  it  was 
sustained  by  an  able  and  ambitious  leader,  who  not 
only  denied  Kanghi's  supremacy  but  disputed  with 
him  the  empire  of  the  steppes. 

Galdan  was  the  younger  son  of  the  most  powerful 
chief  of  his  tribe.  Full  of  ambition,  and  chafing  at 
the  subordinate  position  due  to  his  birth,  he  quarrelled 
with  some  of  his  brothers  and  killed  one  of  them. 


292  HISTORICAL  TALES. 

Being  forced  to  flee,  he  made  his  way  to  Thibet, 
where  he  sought  to  obtain  admission  to  the  ranks  of 
the  Buddhist  clergy,  but  was  refused  by  the  Dalai 
Lama  on  account  of  his  deed  of  blood.  But  on  his 
return  to  the  tents  of  his  tribe  he  found  himself  in 
a  new  position.  His  crime  was  forgotten  or  con- 
doned, and  the  fact  that  he  had  dwelt  in  the  palace 
and  under  the  holy  influence  of  the  Dalai  Lama,  the 
supreme  religious  power  in  Buddhist  Asia,  gave  him 
a  high  standing  among  his  fellow-tribesmen.  The 
influence  thus  gained  and  his  boldness  and  ruthless- 
ness  completed  the  work  he  had  in  mind.  The  ruling 
khan  was  deposed,  all  members  of  his  family  whose 
hostility  was  feared  by  Galdan  were  slain,  and  he 
found  himself  at  the  head  of  the  tribe,  whose  mem- 
bers were  terrified  into  submission. 

His  thirst  for  power  now  showed  itself  in  en- 
croachments upon  the  lands  of  neighboring  clans. 
The  Manchus  were  at  that  time  embarrassed  by  the 
rebellion  of  Wou  Sankwei,  and  the  opportunity 
seemed  excellent  for  an  invasion  of  the  district  of 
the  Khalkas,  firm  friends  of  the  Manchu  power. 
He  also  sent  troops  towards  the  Chinese  frontier, 
fear  of  whom  forced  many  of  the  tribesmen  to  cross 
the  border  and  seek  the  emperor's  aid.  Kanghi 
could  then  only  give  them  lands  within  his  realm, 
being  too  much  occupied  at  home  to  be  able  to  do 
more  than  send  spies  into  the  steppes.  From  these 
he  learned  that  Galdan  had  built  up  a  formidable 
power  and  that  he  evidently  had  in  view  the  subjec- 
tion of  all  the  tribes. 

Kanghi,  anxious  to  settle   these  difficulties   ami- 


THE   CAREER   OP   A   DESERT   CHIEF.  293 

cably,  spent  a  number  of  years  in  negotiations,  but 
his  rival  showed  as  much  ability  in  diplomacy  as 
in  the  field,  and  succeeded  in  masking  his  designs 
while  he  was  strengthening  his  position  and  pre- 
paring for  open  hostilities.  Finally,  with  an  army  of 
thirty  thousand  men,  he  invaded  the  country  of  the 
Khalkas,  and  in  1690  took  his  first  open  step  of  hos- 
tility against  China,  by  arresting  the  envoys  who 
had  been  sent  to  his  camp.  This  insult  put  an  end 
to  all  Kanghi's  efforts  to  maintain  peace.  The  dip- 
lomatic movements  were  followed  by  a  display  of 
military  energy  and  activity,  and  the  whole  northern 
army,  consisting  of  the  eight  Manchu  Banners,  the 
forty-nine  Mongol  Banners,  and  a  large  force  of 
Chinese  auxiliaries,  was  set  in  motion  across  the 
steppes. 

Meanwhile  Galdan,  alarmed  by  the  hostility  he  had 
provoked,  sought  to  make  an  alliance  with  the  Rus- 
sians, an  effort  which  brought  him  hollow  promises 
but  no  assistance.  Without  waiting  for  the  coming 
of  all  his  foes,  he  made  a  vigorous  attack  on  the 
Chinese  advance  force  and  drove  it  back  in  defeat, 
remaining  master  of  the  field.  Yet,  recognizing  that 
the  enemy  was  far  too  strong  for  him,  he  sent  an 
envoy  to  Peking,  offering  concessions  and  asking  for 
peace.  The  emperor  listened,  but  the  army  pushed 
on,  and  an  attack  in  force  was  made  upon  the  Eleuth 
camp,  which  was  located  at  the  foot  of  a  mountain, 
between  a  wood  and  a  stream.  The  post  was  a  strong 
one,  and  the  Eleuths  fought  stubbornly,  but  they 
were  too  greatly  outnumbered,  and  in  the  end  were 
put  to  flight,  after  having  inflicted  severe  loss  on 


294  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

their  foes,  an  uncle  of  the  emperor  being  among  the 
slain.  Galdan  now,  finding  that  the  war  was  going 
against  him,  offered  fealty  and  obedience  to  the  em- 
peror, which  Kanghi,  glad  to  withdraw  his  army  from 
its  difficult  position  in  the  desert,  accepted,  sending 
the  chieftain  a  letter  of  forgiveness.  Thus  ended  the 
campaign  of  1690. 

It  was  a  truce,  not  a  peace.  Galdan's  ambition  re- 
mained unsatisfied,  and  Kanghi  put  little  confidence 
in  his  promises.  He  was  right :  the  desert  chief  oc- 
cupied himself  in  sowing  the  seeds  of  dissension 
among  the  hordes,  and  in  1693,  finding  the  Dalai 
Lama  his  opponent,  took  the  step  of  professing 
himself  a  Mohammedan,  in  the  hope  of  gaining  the 
assistance  of  the  Mussulman  Tartars  and  Chinese. 
Yet  he  kept  up  negotiations  with  the  Dalai  Lama, 
with  the  purpose  of  retaining  the  Buddhist  support. 
Meanwhile  conflicts  between  the  tribes  went  on,  and 
in  1695  Kanghi,  incensed  at  the  constant  encroach- 
ments of  the  ambitious  chief,  which  failed  to  sustain 
his  peaceful  professions,  resolved  to  put  an  end  to 
the  trouble  by  his  complete  and  irretrievable  over- 
throw. 

The  despatch  of  a  large  army  into  the  recesses 
of  Central  Asia  was  a  difficult  and  hazardous  enter- 
prise, yet  it  seemed  the  only  means  of  ending  the 
strained  situation,  and  by  1696  a  large  force  was  got 
ready  for  a  protracted  desert  war,  the  principal 
command  being  given  to  a  frontier  soldier  named 
Feyanku,  who  in  the  preceding  troubles  had  shown 
marked  ability. 

On  the  eve  of  the  great  national  holiday  of  China, 


THE   CAREER   OP   A   DESERT  CHIEF.  295 

the  Feast  of  Lanterns,  the  imperial  court  reviewed 
a  section  of  the  army,  drawn  up  in  military  array 
along  the  principal  street  of  Peking.  The  emperor, 
surrounded  by  the  principal  functionaries  of  the 
government,  occupied  a  throne  on  a  raised  platform 
from  which  the  whole  scene  could  be  surveyed,  while 
strains  of  martial  music  filled  the  air.  The  culmi- 
nating scene  in  the  ceremony  took  place  when  Fe- 
yanku  approached  the  throne,  received  on  his  knees 
from  the  emperor's  hand  a  cup  of  wine,  and  retired 
down  the  steps,  at  whose  foot  he  quaffed  the  wine 
amid  the  shouts  of  thousands  of  spectators.  This 
ceremony  was  repeated  with  each  of  the  subordinate 
generals,  and  then  with  the  lower  officers  of  the 
army,  ten  at  a  time.  Success  being  thus  drunk  to 
the  army,  Feyanku  left  the  capital  to  assume  the 
active  command  in  the  field,  while  Kanghi,  bent  on 
complete  success,  set  to  work  to  recruit  in  all  haste 
a  second  army,  which  he  proposed  to  command  him- 
self. 

The  whole  force  raised  was  an  immense  one,  con- 
sidering the  character  of  the  country  to  be  traversed 
and  the  limited  resources  of  the  enemy.  It  marched 
in  four  divisions,  of  which  that  under  Feyanku  num- 
bered about  thirty-five  thousand  men.  Despite  the 
great  distance  to  be  traversed,  the  desert-like  con- 
dition of  much  of  the  country,  and  the  fact  that  de- 
ficiency of  resources  cost  thousands  of  lives  and 
forced  many  detachments  to  retreat,  a  powerful 
force  at  length  reached  the  borders  of  Gal  dan's  ter- 
ritory. After  a  march  of  more  than  three  months' 
duration  Feyanku  pitched  his  camp  near  the  sources 


296  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

of  the  Tula,  his  army  being  reduced  to  twelve  thou- 
sand available  men.  These  were  placed  in  a  forti- 
fied position  within  the  Mongol  camping-ground  of 
Chowmodo. 

Meanwhile  how  was  Galdan  engaged  ?  He  had 
sought,  but  in  vain,  to  win  the  alliance  of  a  power- 
ful Mongol  tribe,  and  had  conducted  fruitless  nego- 
tiations with  the  Russians  of  Siberia.  His  only 
remaining  hope  lay  in  the  desert  barrier  which  lay 
between  him  and  his  great  enemy,  and  this  vanished 
when  the  Chinese  army  made  its  appearance  in  his 
territories,  though  its  success  had  been  gained  at  a 
frightful  loss  of  life.  The  situation  of  the  desert 
chief  had  become  desperate,  his  only  hope  lying  in 
an  attack  on  the  advance  body  of  the  Chinese  before 
it  could  be  joined  by  the  other  detachments,  and 
while  exhausted  by  its  long  march  across  the  desert 
of  Gobi.  He  therefore  made  a  rapid  march  and 
vigorously  assailed  the  Chinese  intrenchments  at 
Chowmodo. 

In  the  interval  the  Chinese  commanders  had  found 
themselves  in  a  perilous  position.  Their  supplies 
had  run  low,  they  could  not  be  replenished  in  that 
situation,  farther  advance  had  become  impossible, 
and  it  seemed  equally  impossible  to  maintain  their 
position.  Retreat  seemed  their  only  means  of  ex- 
tricating themselves  from  their  dilemma,  and  the 
question  of  doing  so  was  under  discussion  when  the 
sudden  assault  of  Galdan  happily  relieved  Feyankti 
from  a  situation  which  threatened  the  loss  of  his 
military  renown.  Of  the  battle  that  followed  we 
know  only  that  Feyanku  remained  on  the  defensive 


THE  CAREER  OF  A  DESERT  CHIEF.       297 

and  sustained  Galdan's  attacks  for  three  hours,  when 
he  gave  the  signal  for  a  charge.  The  wearied 
Eleuths  soon  broke  before  the  determined  onset,  a 
disordered  flight  began,  and  Galdan,  seeing  that  the 
day  was  lost,  fled  with  a  small  body  of  followers, 
leaving  his  camp  and  baggage  to  the  victors  and 
two  thousand  of  his  men  dead  on  the  field. 

This  victory  ended  the  war.  Kanghi,  on  hearing 
of  it,  returned  to  Peking,  having  sent  word  to  Fe- 
yanku  to  pursue  Galdan  with  unrelenting  vigor, 
there  being  no  security  while  he  remained  at  large. 
The  recent  powerful  chief  was  now  at  the  end  of 
his  resources.  He  fled  for  safety  from  camp  to 
camp.  He  sent  an  envoy  to  Peking  with  an  abject 
offer  to  surrender.  He  made  new  overtures  to  the 
Eussians,  and  sought  in  a  dozen  ways  to  escape  from 
his  implacable  enemies.  But  Feyanku  kept  up  the 
pursuit,  ceasing  only  when  word  came  to  him  that 
the  fugitive  was  dead.  Anxiety,  hardships,  chagrin, 
or,  as  some  say,  the  act  of  his  own  hand,  had  car- 
ried off  the  desert  chief,  and  relieved  the  emperor 
of  China  from  the  peril  and  annoyance  which  had  so 
long  troubled  him. 

In  Galdan  died  a  man  who,  under  more  fortunate 
circumstances,  might  have  emulated  some  of  the 
famous  Tartar  chiefs,  a  warrior  of  the  greatest  skill, 
courage,  and  daring,  a  "formidable  enemy"  to  the 
Chinese  empire,  and  one  who,  had  the  government 
of  that  empire  been  as  weak  as  it  proved  strong, 
might  have  gathered  all  the  nomads  under  arms  and 
overthrown  the  dynasty. 

A  few  words  must  suffice  to  end  the  story  of  the 


298  HISTORICAL  TALES. 

Eleuths.  The  death  of  Galdan  did  not  bring  them 
to  submission,  and  years  afterwards  we  find  them 
hostile  to  Chinese  rule,  and  even  so  di-ring  as  to  in- 
vade Thibet,  which  Kanghi  had  added  to  his  empire, 
they  taking  its  central  city  of  Lhasea,  and  carrying 
to  the  steppes  a  vast  wealth  in  spoil.  Eventually 
they  were  subjected  to  Chinese  rule,  but  before  this 
took  place  an  event  of  much  interest  occurred.  The 
Tourguts,  an  adjoining  Kalmuck  tribe,  were  so  im- 
perilled by  the  enmity  of  the  Eleuths  that  they 
took  the  important  resolution  of  migrating  to  Russia, 
marching  across  the  Kirghiz  steppes  and  becoming 
faithful  subjects  of  the  czar,  who  gave  them  a  new 
abiding-place  on  the  banks  of  the  Volga.  Many 
years  afterwards,  in  1770,  this  tribe,  inspired  by  a 
strong  desire  to  return  to  their  own  home,  left  the 
Yolga  and  crossed  Asia,  despite  all  efforts  to  check 
their  flight,  until  they  reached  again  their  native 
soil.  For  the  interesting  story  of  this  adventurous 
flight  see  Yolume  YIII. 


THE  RAID  OF  THE  GOORKHAS. 

DURING  the  past  two  and  a  half  centuries  the  great 
empire  of  China  has  been  under  foreign  rule,  its 
emperors,  its  state  officials,  its  generals  and  trusted 
battalions,  being  of  Tartar  blood,  and  the  whole 
nation  being  forced  to  wear,  in  the  shaved  head 
and  pigtail  of  every  man  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest,  a  badge  of  servitude.  The  firm  position 
gained  by  the  Manchu  dynasty  was  largely  due  to 
the  ability  of  two  emperors,  Kanghi  and  Keen  Lung, 
who  stamped  out  the  spirit  of  rebellion  in  China, 
added  Thibet  to  the  empire,  and  conquered  Mon- 
golia, subduing  those  restless  tribes  which  for  so 
many  centuries  had  been  a  sword  in  the  side  of  the 
great  empire  of  the  East.  Their  able  administration 
was  aided  by  their  long  reigns,  Kanghi  being  on  the 
throne  for  sixty-one  years,  while  Keen  Lung  abdi- 
cated after  a  reign  of  sixty  years,  that  he  might  not 
take  from  his  esteemed  grandfather  the  honor  of  the 
longest  reign.  Keen  Lung  died  three  years  after- 
wards, in  1799,  thus  bringing  up  the  history  of 
China  almost  to  the  opening  year  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  His  eventful  life  was  largely  devoted  to 
the  consolidation  of  the  Tartar  authority,  and  was 
marked  by  brilliant  military  exploits  and  zeal  in 
promoting  the  interests  of  China  in  all  directions. 

299 


300  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

It  is  our  purpose  here  to  tell  the  story  of  one  of  the 
famous  military  exploits  of  his  reign. 

The  conquest  of  Thibet  had  brought  the  Chinese 
into  contact  with  the  bold  and  restless  hill-tribes 
which  occupy  the  region  between  China  and  India. 
South  of  the  Himalaya  range  there  existed  several 
small  mountain  states,  independent  alike  of  Mogul 
and  of  British  rule,  and  defiant  in  their  mountain 
fastnesses  of  all  the  great  surrounding  powers.  Of 
these  small  states  the  most  important  was  Nepal, 
originally  a  single  kingdom,  but  afterwards  divided 
into  three,  which  were  in  frequent  hostility  with 
one  another.  West  of  Nepal  was  a  small  clan,  the 
Goorkhas,  whose  people  were  noted  for  their  war- 
like daring.  It  is  with  these  that  we  are  here  con- 
cerned. 

In  1760  the  king  of  Bhatgaon,  one  of  the  divisions 
of  Nepal,  being  threatened  by  his  rival  kings,  begged 
aid  from  the  Goorkha  chief.  It  was  readily  given, 
and  with  such  effect  as  to  win  the  allies  a  signal  tri- 
umph. The  ease  of  his  victory  roused  the  ambition 
of  Narayan,  the  leader  of  the  Goorkhas,  and  by 
1769  the  three  kings  of  Nepal  were  either  slain  or 
fugitives  in  India  and  their  country  had  fallen  under 
the  dominion  of  its  recently  insignificant  and  little- 
considered  neighbor. 

The  Goorkhas  differed  essentially  from  the  Nepal- 
ese  in  character.  They  despised  commerce  and  dis- 
liked strangers.  War  was  their  trade,  and  their  ag- 
gressions soon  disturbed  conditions  along  the  whole 
Himalaya  range.  The  flourishing  trade  which  had 
once  existed  between  India  and  Thibet  by  way  of 


THE  RAID  OF  THE  GOORKHAS.         301 

Nepal  was  brought  to  an  end,  while  the  raids  of  the 
dominant  clan  on  neighboring  powers  excited  gen- 
eral apprehension.  Twenty  years  after  their  con- 
quest of  Nepal  the  incursions  of  the  Goorkhas  into 
Thibet  became  so  serious  as  to  demand  the  attention 
of  the  Chinese  emperor,  though  no  decided  action 
was  taken  for  their  suppression.  But  in  1790  an 
event  occurred  that  put  a  sudden  end  to  this  supine 
indifference. 

The  temples  and  lamasaries  of  Thibet  were  widely 
believed  to  contain  a  great  store  of  wealth,  the  re- 
ports of  which  proved  highly  alluring  to  the  needy 
and  daring  warriors  of  the  Goorkha  clan.  The  Chi- 
nese had  shown  no  disposition  to  defend  Thibet,  and 
this  rich  spoil  seemed  to  lie  at  the  mercy  of  any 
adventurous  band  strong  enough  to  overcome  local 
opposition.  In  consequence,  the  Goorkhas  prepared 
for  an  invasion  in  force  of  the  northern  state,  and, 
with  an  army  of  about  eighteen  thousand  men, 
crossed  the  Himalayas  by  the  lofty  passes  of  Kirong 
and  Kuti  and  rapidly  advanced  into  the  country  be- 
yond. 

The  suddenness  of  this  movement  found  the  ThL 
betans  quite  unprepared.  Everything  gave  way 
before  the  bold  invaders,  and  in  a  short  time  De- 
garchi,  the  second  town  of  the  state,  fell  into  their 
hands.  This  was  the  residence  of  the  Teshu  Lama, 
ranking  next  to  the  Dalai  in  authorit}T,  and  possessed 
the  vast  lamasary  of  Teshu  Lumbo,  rich  in  accumu- 
lated wealth,  which  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  in- 
vaders. A  farther  advance  would  undoubtedly  have 
given  them  the  chief  city  of  Lhassa,  since  the  un- 


302  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

warlike  population  fled  in  terror  before  their  ad- 
vance, but  their  success  at  Degarchi  had  been  so 
great  as  to  check  their  march,  many  weeks  being 
spent  in  counting  their  spoil  and  subduing  the  sur- 
rounding country. 

Meanwhile  urgent  petitions  were  sent  to  Peking, 
and  the  old  emperor,  aroused  to  the  necessity  for 
prompt  and  decisive  action,  gave  orders  that  all 
available  troops  should  at  once  be  despatched  to 
Lhassa  and  vigorous  preparations  made  for  war. 
Within  a  few  months  a  Chinese  army  of  seventy 
thousand  men,  armed  with  several  pieces  of  light 
artillery,  had  reached  Thibet,  where  the  Goorkhas, 
alarmed  by  the  numbers  of  their  opponents,  made 
hasty  preparations  for  a  retreat.  But  their  spoil 
was  so  abundant  and  bulky  as  to  delay  their  march, 
and  the  Chinese,  who  were  well  commanded,  suc- 
ceeded in  coming  up  with  them  before  they  had 
crossed  the  mountain  passes.  The  movements  of 
the  Chinese  commander  were  so  skilfully  made  that 
the  retreat  of  the  Goorkhas  without  a  battle  for  the 
safety  of  their  treasures  became  impossible. 

Sund  Fo,  the  Chinese  general,  according  to  the 
usual  practice  of  his  people,  began  by  the  offer  of 
terms  to  the  enemy,  these  being  the  surrender  of  all 
their  spoil  and  of  a  renegade  lama  whose  tale  of 
the  wealth  of  Thibet  had  led  to  the  invasion.  Prob- 
ably also  pledges  for  better  conduct  in  future  were 
demanded,  but  the  proud  chief  of  the  Goorkhas 
haughtily  refused  to  accept  any  of  these  conditions 
and  defied  his  foes  to  do  their  worst.  Of  the  battle 
that  followed  nothing  is  known  except  its  result, 


THE   RAID   OF   THE   GOORKHAS.  303 

which  was  the  defeat  and  hasty  retreat  of  the  in- 
vaders, much  of  whose  baggage  was  left  behind. 

The  Chinese  do  not  seem  to  have  suffered  greatly, 
to  judge  from  the  promptness  of  their  pursuit,  which 
was  made  with  such  rapidity  that  the  Goorkhas 
were  overtaken  and  again  defeated  before  they  had 
reached  the  Kirong  pass,  they  being  now  obliged  to 
abandon  most  of  their  baggage  and  spoil.  The  pur- 
suit continued  with  an  energy  remarkable  for  a 
Chinese  army,  the  Goorkhas,  bold  as  they  were  by 
nature,  growing  demoralized  under  this  unlooked-for 
persistence.  Every  encounter  resulted  in  a  defeat, 
the  forts  which  commanded  the  mountain  passes  and 
defiles  were  taken  in  succession  by  Sund  Fo's  army, 
and  he  still  pressed  relentlessly  on.  At  a  strong 
point  called  Rassoa  the  Goorkhas  defended  for  three 
days  a  passage  over  a  chasm,  but  they  had  grown 
faint-hearted  through  their  successive  defeats,  and 
this  post  too  fell  into  the  hands  of  their  enemy. 

The  triumphs  of  the  Chinese  had  not  been  won 
without  severe  loss,  both  in  their  frequent  assaults 
upon  mountain  strongholds  and  a  desperate  foe,  and 
from  the  passage  of  the  snow-clad  mountains,  but 
they  finally  succeeded  in  reaching  the  southern  slopes 
of  the  Himalayas  with  an  effective  force  of  forty 
thousand  men.  Khatmandu,  the  Goorkba  capital, 
lay  not  far  away,  and  with  a  last  effort  of  courage 
and  despair  the  retreating  army  made  a  stand  for 
the  defence  of  the  seat  of  their  government. 

Their  position  was  a  strong  one,  their  courage  that 
of  desperation,  and  their  valor  and  resolution  so 
great  that  for  a  time  they  checked  the  much  stronger 


304  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

battalions  of  their  foes.  The  Chinese  troops,  dis- 
heartened by  the  courage  with  which  the  few  but 
brave  mountaineers  held  their  works,  were  filled  with 
dismay,  and  might  have  been  repulsed  but  for  tbo 
ruthless  energy  of  their  leader,  who  was  determined 
at  any  cost  to  win.  Turning  the  fire  of  his  artillery 
upon  his  own  troops,  he  drove  them  relentlessly 
upon  the  foe,  forcing  them  to  a  charge  that  swept 
them  like  a  torrent  over  the  Goorkha  works.  The 
fire  of  the  guns  was  kept  up  upon  the  mingled  mass 
of  combatants  until  the  Goorkhas  were  driven  over 
a  precipice  into  the  stream  of  the  Tadi  that  ran  be- 
low. By  this  decisive  act  of  the  Chinese  commander 
many  of  his  own  men  were  slain,  but  the  enemy 
was  practically  annihilated  and  the  war  brought  to 
an  end. 

The  Goorkhas  now  humbly  solicited  peace,  which 
Sund  Fo  was  quite  ready  to  grant,  for  his  own  losses 
had  been  heavy  and  it  was  important  to  recross 
the  mountains  before  winter  set  in.  He  therefore 
granted  them  peace  on  humiliating  terms,  though 
these  were  as  favorable  as  they  could  expect  under 
the  circumstances.  Any  further  attempt  at  resist- 
ance against  the  overwhelming  army  of  their  foes 
might  have  ended  in  the  complete  destruction  of 
their  state.  They  took  an  oath  to  keep  the  peace 
with  Thibet,  to  acknowledge  themselves  vassals  of 
China,  to  send  an  embassy  with  tribute  to  Peking 
every  five  years,  and  to  restore  all  the  plunder  taken 
from  Teshu  Lurabo. 

Of  the  later  history  of  the  Goorkhas  some  words 
may  be  said.  Their  raids  into  India  led  to  a  British 


THE  RAID  OF  THE  GOORKHAS         305 

invasion  of  their  country  in  1814,  and  in  1816  they 
were  forced  to  make  peace.  The  celebrated  Jung 
Bahadur  became  their  ruler  in  1846  through  the 
summary  process  of  killing  all  his  enemies,  and  in 
1857,  during  the  Indian  mutiny,  he  came  with  a 
strong  force  to  the  aid  of  the  British,  whose  friend 
he  had  always  remained.  In  more  recent  wars  the 
Goorkhas  have  proved  themselves  among  the  bravest 
soldiers  in  the  Indian  army,  and  in  the  late  war 
with  the  hill-tribes  showed  an  intrepidity  which  no 
part  of  the  army  surpassed.  The  independence  of 
their  stale  is  still  maintained. 


20 


HO W  EUROPE  ENTERED  CHINA. 

FOR  four  or  five  thousand  years  China  remained 
isolated  from  the  rest  of  the  civilized  world,  its  only 
relations  being  with  the  surrounding  peoples  of  its 
own  race,  notably  with  the  Tartars  of  the  steppes. 
Then,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  the  wall  of  isola- 
tion suddenly  broke  down,  and  it  was  forced  to  enter 
into  relations  of  trade  and  amity  with  Europe  and 
America.  This  revolution  did  not  come  about  peace- 
fully. The  thunder  of  cannon  was  necessary  to 
break  down  the  Chinese  wall  of  seclusion.  But  the 
result  seems  likely  to  prove  of  the  greatest  advan- 
tage to  the  so-called  Celestial  Kingdom.  It  has 
swung  loose  from  its  moorings  in  the  harbor  of  con- 
servatism, and  it  is  not  safe  to  predict  how  far  it  will 
drift,  but  it  is  safe  to  say  that  a  few  years  of  foreign 
war  have  done  as  much  for  it  as  hundreds  of  years  of 
peace  and  isolation. 

From  time  to  time  in  the  past  centuries  Europeans 
made  their  way  to  China.  Some  were  priestly  en- 
voys, some  missionaries,  some,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Polos,  traders.  Afterwards  came  the  Jesuit  mission- 
aries, who  gained  an  important  standing  in  China 
under  the  early  Manchu  emperors,  and  were  greatly 
favored  by  the  emperor  Kanghi.  After  his  death  a 
change  took  place,  and  they  were  gradually  driven 
from  the  land. 
306 


HOW  EUROPE  ENTERED  CHINA.        307 

The  first  foreign  envoy  reached  China  from  Russia 
in  1567.  Another  came  in  1653,  his  purpose  being 
to  establish  freedom  of  trade.  A  century  later  a 
treaty  was  made  establishing  a  system  of  overland 
trade  between  Russia  and  China,  and  since  then  a 
Russian  missionary  station  has  existed  in  Peking. 
In  1516  came  the  first  vessel  to  China  under  a 
European  flag,  a  Portuguese  trader.  Others  fol- 
lowed, and  trade  began  through  Canton  and  other 
ports.  But  the  foreign  traders  soon  began  to  act 
rather  as  pirates  than  as  peaceful  visitors,  and  in 
the  end  the  Chinese  drove  them  all  away.  About 
the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  a  foreign  settle- 
ment was  begun  at  Macao,  on  an  island  near  the 
southeast  boundary  of  the  empire,  and  here  the  trade 
grew  so  brisk  that  for  a  time  Macao  was  the  richest 
trading-mart  in  Eastern  Asia.  But  so  hostile  were 
the  relations  between  the  Portuguese,  Spanish,  and 
Dutch,  and  so  brigand-like  their  behavior,  that  the 
Chinese  looked  upon  them  all  as  piratical  barbarians, 
and  intercourse  did  not  grow. 

The  English  had  their  own  way  of  opening  trade 
relations.  A  fleet  under  Captain  Weddell  came  to 
Canton  in  1637,  and,  as  the  Chinese  fired  upon  a 
watering  boat,  attacked  and  captured  the  forts,  burnt 
the  council-house,  carried  off  the  guns  from  the  forts, 
and  seized  two  merchant  junks.  About  fifty  years 
afterwards  they  were  accorded  trading  privileges  at 
Canton  and  Ning-po. 

To  England,  indeed,  is  due  the  chief  credit  of 
opening  up  China  to  the  world,  though  the  way  in 
which  it  was  done  is  not  much  to  England's  credit. 


308  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

This  was  by  the  famous — or  infamous — opium  war. 
But  in  another  way  England  was  the  first  to  break 
through  the  traditional  ceremonies  of  the  Chinese 
court.  All  who  approached  the  emperor's  throne, 
foreign  ambassadors  as  well  as  Chinese  subjects,  were 
required  to  perform  the  kotow,  which  consisted  in 
kneeling  three  times  before  the  emperor,  or  even  be- 
fore his  empty  throne,  and  each  time  bowing  the 
head  until  the  forehead  three  times  touched  the 
marble  flooring.  This  was  done  by  the  Eussians 
and  the  Dutch,  but  the  Earl  of  Macartney,  who 
came  as  English  ambassador  in  1792,  refused  to  per- 
form the  slavish  ceremony,  and  was  therefore  not 
permitted  to  see  the  emperor,  though  otherwise  well 
received. 

The  first  event  of  importance  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  that  century  so  vital  in  the  history  of 
China,  was  the  hoisting  of  the  American  flag  at 
Canton  in  1802,  which  marked  the  beginning  of 
American  trade  with  the  Celestial  empire.  From 
this  time  the  trade  of  Canton  rapidly  grew,  until  it 
became  one  of  the  greatest  commercial  cities  of  the 
world,  while  its  mercantile  activity  gave  employ- 
ment to  millions  of  natives  in  all  parts  of  the  empire 
in  preparing  articles  of  commerce,  particularly  tea. 
It  was  also  of  great  importance  to  the  imperial  gov- 
ernment from  the  revenue  it  furnished  in  the  way 
of  duty  and  presents.  It  is  of  interest  to  note,  how- 
ever, that  the  emperor  and  his  court  looked  upon 
these  presents  as  the  payment  of  tribute,  and  the 
nations  that  sent  them,  unknown  to  themselves,  were 
set  down  as  vassals  of  the  Chinese  crown. 


HOW  EUROPE  ENTERED  CHINA.         309 

We  have  now  an  important  feature  of  the  Chinese 
trade  to  record.  Opium  was  a  favorite  article  of 
consumption  in  China,  and  its  use  there  had  given 
rise  to  an  important  industry  in  British  India,  in  the 
growth  of  the  poppy.  In  the  year  1800  the  emperor, 
perceiving  the  growing  evil  in  the  use  of  opium  by 
his  people,  issued  an  edict  forbidding  its  introduction 
into  China.  This  did  not  check  the  trade,  its  only 
effect  being  to  convert  legitimate  into  smuggling 
traffic.  The  trade  went  on  as  briskly  as  before,  the 
smugglers  being  openly  aided  by  venal  officials  not 
only  at  Canton  but  at  other  points  along  the  coast. 
By  1838  the  disregard  of  the  law,  and  the  quantity 
of  opium  smuggled  into  the  empire  by  small  boats 
on  the  Canton  River,  had  become  so  great  that  the 
Peking  government  determined  to  take  more  active 
steps  for  the  suppression  of  the  illicit  trade.  At  this 
time  there  were  more  than  fifty  small  craft  plying 
on  the  river  under  the  English  and  American  flags, 
most  of  them  smugglers.  Some  of  these  were  seized 
and  destroyed,  but  as  the  others  were  then  heavily 
manned  and  armed  the  revenue  officers  declined  to 
interfere  with  them,  and  the  contraband  trade  went 
briskly  on. 

At  length  the  difficulty  reached  a  climax.  Arrests 
and  punishments  for  the  use  of  opium  became  com- 
mon throughout  the  empire,  three  royal  princes  were 
degraded  for  this  practice,  a  commissioner  with  large 
powers  was  sent  from  Peking  to  Canton,  and  the 
foreigners  were  ordered  to  deliver  up  every  particle 
of  opium  in  their  store-ships  and  give  bonds  to  bring 
no  more,  on  penalty  of  death.  As  a  result,  somewhat 


310  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

more  than  one  thousand  chests  were  tendered  to  the 
commissioner,  but  this  was  declared  to  be  not  enough, 
and  that  official  at  once  took  the  decisive  measure  of 
cutting  off  the  food-supply  from  the  foreign  settle- 
ment. This  and  other  active  steps  brought  about 
the  desired  result.  Captain  Elliot,  the  British  super- 
intendent of  commerce,  advised  a  complete  delivery 
of  all  opium  under  British  control,  and  before  night 
more  than  twenty  thousand  chests  of  the  deleterious 
drug  were  surrendered  into  his  hands,  and  were 
offered  by  him  to  the  commissioner  the  next  day. 

News  of  this  event  was  sent  to  Peking,  and  orders 
came  back  that  the  opium  should  be  all  destroyed  ; 
which  was  done  effectively  by  mixing  it  with  salt 
water  and  lime  in  trenches  and  drawing  off  the  mix- 
ture into  an  adjacent  creek.  Care  was  taken  that 
none  should  be  purloined,  and  one  man  was  executed 
on  the  spot  for  attempting  to  steal  a  small  portion 
of  the  drug.  Thus  perished  an  amount  of  the  valu- 
able substance  rated  at  cost  price  at  nearly  eleven 
million  dollars. 

We  have  described  this  event  at  some  length,  as 
it  led  to  the  first  war  between  China  and  a  foreign 
power.  The  destruction  of  the  opium  deeply  offended 
the  British  government,  and  in  the  next  year  (1840) 
Captain  Elliot  received  an  official  letter  to  the  effect 
that  war  would  be  declared  unless  China  should  pay 
for  the  goods  destroyed.  As  China  showed  no  inten- 
tion of  doing  so,  an  English  fleet  was  sent  to  Chinese 
waters  in  the  summer  of  1841,  whose  admiral  de- 
clared a  blockade  of  the  port  of  Canton,  and,  on 
July  5,  bombarded  and  captured  the  town  of  Ting- 


HOW  EUROPE  ENTERED  CHINA.        311 

hai.  Various  other  places  were  blockaded,  and,  as 
the  emperor  rejected  all  demands,  the  fleet  moved 
upon  Canton,  taking  the  forts  along  the  river  as  it 
advanced.  In  the  end,  when  an  attack  had  become 
imminent,  the  authorities  ransomed  their  city  for  the 
sum  of  six  million  dollars. 

But  the  emperor  did  not  know  yet  the  strength  of 
the  power  with  which  he  had  to  deal,  and  still  con- 
tinued silent  and  defiant.  The  fleet  now  sailed  north- 
ward, capturing  in  succession  Aruoy,  Chin-hai,  and 
Ning-po.  Cha-pu  was  the  next  to  fall,  and  here  the 
Manchu  Tartars  for  the  first  time  came  into  conflict 
with  the  English.  When  defeated,  great  numbers  of 
them  killed  themselves,  first  destroying  their  wives 
and  children.  The  forts  at  the  mouth  of  the  Yang- 
tse-Kiang  were  next  taken.  Here  the  governor-gen- 
eral took  care  to  post  himself  out  of  danger,  but  in 
a  grandiloquent  despatch  declared  that  he  had  been 
in  the  hottest  of  the  fight,  "  where  cannon-balls  in- 
numerable, flying  in  awful  confusion  through  the 
expanse  of  heaven,  fell  before,  behind,  and  on  every 
side,  while  in  the  distance  were  visible  the  ships  of 
the  rebels  standing  erect,  lofty  as  mountains.  The 
fierce  daring  of  the  rebels  was  inconceivable ;  officers 
and  men  fell  at  their  posts.  Every  effort  to  resist 
the  onset  was  in  vain,  and  a  retreat  became  inevi- 
table." 

The  result  was  the  capture  of  Shanghai.  The 
British  now  determined  on  a  siege  of  the  important 
city  of  Nanking,  the  ancient  capital  of  China.  The 
movement  began  with  an  attack  on  Chin-Kiang-fu, 
the  "Mart-river  city."  Here  a  fierce  assault  was 


312  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

made,  the  Manchu  garrison  resisting  with  obstinate 
courage.  In  the  end,  of  the  garrison  of  four  thou- 
sand only  five  hundred  remained,  most  of  the  others 
having  killed  themselves.  This  victory  rendered  the 
capture  of  Nanking  certain,  its  food-supply  was 
already  endangered  by  the  English  control  of  the 
river,  and  the  authorities  gave  way.  The  emperor 
was  now  convinced  that  further  resistance  was  hope- 
less, and  the  truce  ended  in  a  treaty  of  peace,  the 
Chinese  government  agreeing  to  pay  twenty-one 
million  dollars  indemnity,  to  open  to  British  trade 
and  residence  the  ports  of  Canton,  A  moy,  Foo-Chow, 
Ning-po,  and  Shanghai,  and  to  cede  to  the  English 
the  island  of  Hong-Kong,  with  various  minor  stipu- 
lations. 

This  war,  which  was  fought  with  the  discreditable 
purpose  of  forcing  upon  China  an  injurious  drug 
against  her  will,  had  nevertheless  several  very  useful 
results.  Other  European  nations  hastened  to  claim 
the  same  privileges  of  trade  that  were  given  the 
English,  and  in  1844  a  commercial  treaty  was  signed 
between  China  and  the  United  States,  in  the  conduct 
of  which  a  favorable  disposition  towards  Americans 
was  shown.  The  eventual  result  was  the  breaking 
down  of  the  barriers  of  intolerance  which  had  been 
so  long  maintained,  that  ancient  and  self-satisfied 
government  being  at  last  forced  to  throw  open  its 
gates  for  the  entrance  of  the  new  ideas  of  inter- 
national amity  and  freedom  of  commerce. 

But  much  had  still  to  be  done  before  these  desira- 
ble results  could  be.fully  achieved.  Hostile  relations 
were  not  yet  at  an  end,  annoying  restrictions  being 


HOW  EUROPE  ENTERED  CHINA.        313 

placed  on  the  promised  intercourse.  In  1856  a  na- 
tive vessel  flying  the  British  flag  was  seized  by  the 
Chinese,  who  refused  to  apologize  to  the  British  for 
the  act.  As  a  result,  the  city  of  Canton  was  bom- 
barded and  the  forts  were  destroyed.  A  warlike 
demonstration  was  decided  upon  by  Great  Britain 
and  France,  the  first  result  being  the  total  destruc- 
tion of  the  Chinese  fleet  and  the  capture  of  Canton. 
A  revision  of  the  former  treaty  and  the  concession 
of  greater  privileges  were  demanded,  which  China, 
warned  by  the  lesson  of  the  opium  war,  found  itself 
obliged  to  grant. 

The  English  and  French,  however,  refused  to  treat 
at  Canton,  as  the  Chinese  desired,  but  sailed  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Pei-ho,  the  port  of  Peking,  up  which 
stream  their  fleets  proceeded  to  the  city  of  Tien-tsin. 
Here  arrangements  for  a  new  treaty  of  commerce 
and  the  opening  of  new  ports  were  made,  Russia 
and  the  United  States  taking  part  in  the  negotia- 
tions. But  on  proceeding  to  the  mouth  of  the  Pei- 
ho  in  1859  to  ratify  the  treaty,  the  river  was  found 
to  be  obstructed  and  the  forts  strongly  armed.  The 
American  and  Russian  envoys  were  willing  to  go  to 
Peking  overland,  in  accordance  with  the  Chinese 
request,  but  the  British  and  French  determined  to 
force  their  way  up  the  stream  and  to  take  as  many 
soldiers  with  them  as  they  pleased.  They  attacked 
the  forts,  therefore,  but,  to  their  disgust,  found  them- 
selves defeated  and  forced  to  withdraw. 

This  repulse  could  have  but  one  result.  It  gave 
the  Chinese  for  the  first  time  confidence  in  their 
ability  to  meet  the  foreigner  in  war.  It  humiliated 


314  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

and  exasperated  the  English  and  French.  They  de- 
termined now  to  carry  the  war  to  the  gates  of 
Peking  and  force  the  Chinese  to  acknowledge  the 
supremacy  of  the  nations  of  the  West. 

The  events  of  this  war  we  can  give  only  in  out- 
line. In  the  summer  of  1860  a  new  attack  was  made 
on  the  Taku  forts,  troops  being  landed  to  assail  them 
in  the  rear,  in  which  direction  no  arrangement  for 
defence  had  been  made.  As  a  result  the  forts  fell,  a 
large  body  of  Tartar  cavalry,  which  sought  to  stop 
the  march  of  the  allies  with  bows,  arrows,  and 
spears,  being  taught  a  lesson  in  modern  war  by  the 
explosion  of  shells  in  their  ranks.  The  capture  of 
the  forts  left  the  way  clear  for  a  march  on  the  capi- 
tal, which  was  at  once  made,  and  on  the  5th  of  Oc- 
tober, 1860,  a  European  army  first  came  within 
view  of  this  long-hidden  and  mysterious  city. 


THE  BURNING  OF  THE  SUM- 
MER PALACE. 

THE  "  sublime"  emperor,  the  supreme  head  of  the 
great  realm  of  China  and  its  hundreds  of  millions 
of  people,  dwells  in  a  magnificence  and  seclusion  un- 
known to  the  monarchs  of  other  lands.  His  palace 
enclosure  within  the  city  of  Peking,  the  "  Purple 
Forbidden  City,"  as  it  is  called,  covers  over  half  a 
square  mile  of  ground,  and  is  surrounded  by  a  wall 
forty  feet  high  and  more  than  forty  feet  thick. 
Within  this  sacred  enclosure  the  Chinese  ideas  of 
beauty  and  magnificence  have  been  developed  to  the 
fullest  extent,  and  the  emperor  resides  in  unap- 
proachable grandeur  and  state.  Outside  the  city,  a 
few  miles  to  the  north,  lies  the  Summer  Palace,  an- 
other locality  on  which  the  Celestial  architects  and 
landscape  artists  have  exhausted  their  genius  in  de- 
vising scenes  of  beauty  and  charm,  and  which  is 
similarly  walled  in  from  the  common  herd.  Beyond 
the  Great  Wall,  on  the  borders  of  Tartary,  exists 
another  palatial  enclosure,  the  hunting  and  pleasure 
grounds  of  the  emperor,  in  the  midst  of  an  immense 
forest  abundantly  stocked  with  game.  To  the  latter 
his  supreme  majesty  made  his  way  with  all  haste  on 
hearing  of  the  rapid  approach  of  the  English  and 
French  armies.  In  truth,  the  great  monarchs  of  the 
Manchu  dynasty  had  passed  away,  and  the  feeble 

316 


316  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

reigning  emperor  lacked  the  courage  to  fight  for  hia 
throne. 

On  the  5th  of  October,  1860,  the  allied  armies  of 
England  and  France  approached  the  Celestial  capi- 
tal, the  officers  obtaining  their  first  view  of  its  far- 
stretching  wall  from  the  tops  of  some  grass-grown 
brick-kilns.  On  the  next  day  the  march  was  re- 
sumed, the  French  force  advancing  upon  the  Sum- 
mer Palace,  where  it  was  hoped  the  emperor  would 
be  found,  the  English  directing  their  course  towards 
the  city,  where  a  Tartar  picket  was  driven  in  and 
preparations  were  begun  for  an  assault  in  force. 

The  Summer  Palace  was  found  in  charge  of  some 
three  hundred  eunuchs,  whom  Prince  Kung,  who 
had  left  in  all  haste  the  evening  before,  had  ordered 
to  make  a  gallant  defence.  But  the  entrance  gave 
way  before  the  impetuous  assault  of  the  French,  a 
few  of  the  defenders  fell  dead  or  wounded,  and  the 
remainder  beat  a  hasty  retreat,  leaving  the  grand 
entrance  to  the  Yuen-ming-yuen,  the  famous  im- 
perial residence,  in  the  hands  of  the  daring  and  dis- 
respectful "  barbarians." 

Into  the  grand  reception-hall,  which  none  had 
heretofore  entered  except  in  trembling  awe,  the 
irreverent  foreigners  boldly  made  their  way,  their 
spurred  heels  ringing  on  the  broad  marble  floor  be- 
fore the  emperor's  sacred  throne,  their  loud  voices 
resounding  through  that  spacious  hall  where  silence 
and  ceremony  so  long  had  reigned  supreme,  as  the 
awed  courtiers  approached  with  silent  tread  and 
voiceless  respect  the  throne  of  the  dreaded  Brother 
of  the  Sun  and  Moon. 


THE   BURNING   OF   THE   SUMMER   PALACE.         317 

"  Imagine  such  a  scene,"  says  Swinhoe.  "  The 
emperor  is  seated  on  his  ebony  throne,  attired  in 
a  yellow  robe  wrought  over  with  dragons  in  gold 
thread,  his  head  surmounted  with  a  spherical  crown 
of  gold  and  precious  stones,  with  pearl  drops  sus- 
pended round  on  light  gold  chains.  His  eunuchs 
and  ministers,  in  court  costume,  are  ranged  on  either 
side  on  their  knees,  and  his  guard  of  honor  and  mu- 
sicians drawn  up  in  two  lines  in  the  court-yard  with- 
out. The  name  of  the  distinguished  person  to  be 
introduced  is  called  out,  and  as  he  approaches  the 
band  strikes  up.  He  draws  near  the  awful  throne, 
and,  looking  meekly  on  the  ground,  drops  on  his 
knees  before  the  central  steps.  He  removes  his  bat 
from  his  head,  and  places  it  on  the  throne  floor  with 
its  peacock  feather  towards  the  imperial  donor.  The 
emperor  moves  his  hand,  and  down  goes  the  humble 
head,  and  the  forehead  strikes  on  the  step  three 
times  three.  The  head  is  then  raised,  but  the  eyes 
are  still  meekly  lowered,  as  the  imperial  voice  in 
thrilling  accents  pronounces  the  behest  of  the  great 
master.  The  voice  hushed,  down  goes  the  head 
again  and  acknowledges  the  sovereign  right,  and  the 
privileged  individual  is  allowed  to  withdraw.  The 
scene  described  is  not  imaginary,  but  warranted  by 
the  accounts  of  natives. 

"How  different  the  scene  now!  The  hall  filled 
with  crowds  of  a  foreign  soldiery,  and  the  throne 
floor  covered  with  the  Celestial  emperor's  choicest 
curios,  but  destined  as  gifts  for  two  far  more  worthy 
monarchs.  '  See  here,'  said  General  Montauban, 
pointing  to  them.  '  I  have  had  a  few  of  the  most 


318  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

brilliant  things  selected  to  be  divided  between  the 
Queen  of  Great  Britain  and  the  Emperor  of  the 
French!1" 

General  Montauban  had  declared  that  no  looting 
should  take  place  until  the  British  came  up,  that  all 
might  have  their  equal  share,  but  the  fierce  desire  of 
the  French  soldiers  for  spoil  could  not  easily  be  re- 
strained. Even  the  officers  were  no  better,  and  as 
the  rooms  of  the  palace  were  boldly  explored,  "  gold 
watches  and  small  valuables  were  whipped  up  by  these 
gentlemen  with  amazing  velocity,  and  as  speedily  dis- 
appeared into  their  capacious  pockets."  Into  the 
very  bedroom  of  the  emperor  the  unawed  visitors 
made  their  way,  and  gazed  with  curious  eyes  on 
the  imperial  couch,  curtained  over  and  covered  with 
silk  mattresses.  Under  the  pillow  was  a  small  silk 
handkerchief,  with  sundry  writings  in  the  vermilion 
pencil  concerning  the  "  barbarians,"  while  on  a  table 
lay  pipes  and  other  articles  of  daily  use.  On  an- 
other table  was  found  the  English  treaty  of  1858, 
whose  terms  were  soon  to  be  largely  modified. 

Meanwhile  the  nimble-fingered  French  soldiers 
had  not  been  idle,  and  the  camp  was  full  of  articles 
of  value  or  interest,  silks  and  curios,  many  of  them 
rare  prizes,  watches,  pencil-cases  set  with  diamonds, 
jewelled  vases,  and  a  host  of  other  costly  trifles, 
chief  among  which  was  a  string  of  splendid  pearls 
exhibited  by  one  officer,  each  pearl  of  the  size  of  a 
marble  and  the  whole  of  immense  value. 

On  Sunday  morning,  the  7th  of  October,  the  orders 
against  looting  were  withdrawn,  and  officers  aqd 
men,  English  and  French  alike,  rushed  excitedly 


THE   BURNING   OP   THE   SUMMER   PALACE.          319 

about  the  place,  appropriating  every  valuable  which 
it  was  within  their  power  to  carry.  What  could 
not  be  carried  away  was  destroyed,  a  spirit  of  wan- 
ton destruction  seeming  to  animate  them  all.  Some 
amused  themselves  by  shooting  at  the  chandeliers, 
others  by  playing  pitch-and-toss  against  large  and 
costly  mirrors,  while  some  armed  themselves  with 
clubs  and  smashed  to  pieces  everything  too  heavy  to 
be  carried,  finishing  the  work  by  setting  on  fire  the 
emperor's  private  residence. 

Those  who  paid  more  heed  to  observation  than  to 
destruction  have  given  us  interesting  accounts  of  the 
Summer  Palace  and  its  surroundings,  whose  vast  en- 
closure extended  from  the  place  where  the  French 
entered  to  the  foot  of  the  first  range  of  hills  north 
of  Peking,  six  or  seven  miles  away.  Over  this  broad 
extent  were  scattered  gardens,  palaces,  temples,  and 
pagodas  on  terraces  and  artificial  hills.  Some  of 
these  were  like  the  one  seen  by  Marco  Polo  in  the 
palace  enclosure  of  Kublai  Khan,  being  from  three 
hundred  to  four  hundred  feet  in  height,  their  sides 
covered  with  forest-trees  of  all  kinds,  through  whose 
foliage  the  yellow-tiled  palace  roofs  appeared.  In 
the  midst  of  these  hills  lay  a  large  lake,  containing 
two  or  three  islands,  on  which  were  picturesque 
buildings,  the  islands  being  reached  by  quaint  and 
beautiful  stone  bridges. 

On  one  side  of  the  lake  ran  the  favorite  walk  of 
the  emperor  and  his  court,  winding  in  and  out  for 
more  than  two  miles  among  grottos  and  flower- 
gardens,  roofed  in  by  flowering  creepers.  Where 
palaces  touched  the  water's  edge  the  walk  was 


320  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

carried  past  on  light  but  beautiful  stone  terraces 
built  over  the  lake.  Grandeur  was  added  to  the 
general  beauty  of  the  scene  by  the  high  mountains 
of  Tartary  which  rose  in  the  rear. 

The  work  of  looting  was  followed  by  a  sale  of  the 
spoil  under  the  walls  of  Peking,  the  auction  con- 
tinuing for  three  days,  during  which  a  large  quantity 
of  valuable  plunder  was  disposed  of.  Many  of  the 
French  officers  had  acquired  considerable  fortunes, 
and  numbers  of  their  men  were  nearly  as  well  sup- 
plied. For  several  days  intoxication  and  disorder 
prevailed,  while  the  disposition  to  plunder  was  ex- 
tended from  the  palace  to  the  neighboring  villages. 

Meanwhile  the  preparations  for  an  assault  on  Pe- 
king had  gone  forward.  The  Anting  gate  was  the 
point  selected,  the  Chinese  being  given  until  the  12th 
for  a  peaceful  surrender.  As  noon  of  that  day  drew 
near,  the  gunners  stood  by  their  pieces,  a  storming 
party  excitedly  awaited  the  order  to  charge  as  soon 
as  a  breach  had  been  made,  and  General  Napier, 
watch  in  hand,  timed  the  slow  minutes.  Five  min- 
utes to  twelve  arrived.  The  general  was  almost  on 
the  point  of  giving  the  order,  the  gunners  were 
growing  eager  and  excited,  when  Colonel  Stephen- 
son  came  galloping  hastily  up  with  the  news  that  the 
gate  had  been  surrendered.  In  a  few  minutes  more 
it  was  thrown  open,  a  party  of  British  marched  in 
and  took  possession,  and  the  French  followed  with 
beating  drums  and  flying  flags,  forcing  the  natives 
back  as  they  advanced. 

That  afternoon  several  prisoners  were  restored  to 
the  allies.  They  proved  to  have  been  inhumanly 


THE  BURNING  OF  THE  SUMMER  PALACE.    321 

treated  and  were  in  a  condition  of  fearful  emacia- 
tion, while  the  bodies  of  several  who  had  died  were 
also  given  up,  among  them  that  of  Mr.  Bowlby,  cor- 
respondent of  the  London  Times.  This  spectacle 
aroused  the  greatest  indignation  in  the  British  camp. 
A  terrible  retribution  might  have  been  inflicted  upon 
Peking  had  not  a  promise  of  its  safety  been  given  if 
the  gate  were  surrendered.  But  the  emperor's  rural 
retreat  lay  at  the  mercy  of  the  troops,  and  Lord  Elgin 
gave  orders  that  its  palaces  should  be  levelled  with 
the  ground.  The  French  refused  to  aid  in  this  act 
of  vandalism,  which  they  strongly  condemned, — a 
verdict  which  has  since  been  that  of  the  civilized 
world.  But  Lord  Elgin  was  fixed  in  his  purpose, 
and  the  work  of  destruction  went  on. 

Soon  flames  appeared  above  the  devoted  structures, 
and  long  columns  of  smoke  rose  to  the  sky,  increas- 
ing in  width  and  density  as  the  day  waned,  until  the 
canopy  of  smoke  hung  like  a  vast  storm-cloud  over 
Peking,  and  the  sorrowful  eyes  of  those  on  the  walls 
saw  the  flashing  fire  that  told  of  the  swift  destruc- 
tion of  what  it  had  taken  centuries  to  build.  For 
two  days  the  work  of  ruin  in  the  imperial  grounds 
went  on,  the  soldiers  carrying  away  what  they  could 
from  the  burning  buildings,  though  a  vast  amount 
of  property  was  destroyed,  the  loss  being  estimated 
at  a  value  of  over  ten  million  dollars. 

Threats  were  now  made  that  unless  compensation 
should  be  paid  for  the  British  subjects  maltreated 
and  murdered,  and  the  treaty  signed  within  a  fixed 
period,  the  palace  in  Peking  would  be  seized  and 
other  steps  of  violence  taken.  There  was  no  redress 
21 


322  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

for  the  Chinese.  They  were  in  the  grasp  of  their 
foes  and  were  obliged  to  submit.  On  the  24th,  Lord 
Elgin  was  carried  in  state  in  his  green  sedan-chair 
through  the  principal  street  of  the  city,  attended 
by  a  force  of  about  eight  thousand  soldiers,  while 
multitudes  of  Chinese  viewed  the  procession  with 
curious  eyes.  Prince  Kung  awaited  him  in  a  large 
hall,  and  here  the  Treaty  of  Tien-tsin,  to  obtain  a 
ratification  of  which  the  allies  had  come  to  Peking, 
was  formally  executed.  At  the  close  of  the  cere- 
monies the  prince  tendered  a  banquet,  but  the  British 
declined  the  proffered  honor,  fearing  that  they  might 
be  poisoned  by  the  Chinese  cooks.  A  similar  ban- 
quet offered  to  the  French  on  the  following  day  was 
readily  accepted,  and  none  of  them  suffered  through 
their  faith  in  the  honor  of  their  host. 

Since  the  date  of  this  war  the  process  of  opening 
China  to  the  nations  of  the  West  has  gone  unceasingly 
on,  the  policy  of  exclusion  of  that  old  nation  slowly 
but  steadily  giving  way.  In  1873,  on  the  young 
emperor  Tung-chi  attaining  his  majority,  the  long- 
refused  audience  with  the  emperor  without  perform- 
ing the  kotow  was  granted,  the  ambassador  of  Japan 
being  first  received,  and  after  him  those  of  the  United 
States,  Kussia,  Great  Britain,  France,  and  the  Nether- 
lands. For  the  first  time  foreigners  were  permitted 
to  stand  erect  and  gaze  with  uplifted  eyes  on  "  the 
sacred  countenance,"  and  the  equality  with  the  em- 
peror of  the  monarchs  of  the  West  was  acknowledged 
by  the  Celestial  court. 


A  GREAT  CHRISTIAN  MOVE- 
MENT AND  ITS  FATE. 

THE  Chinese  are  a  peculiar  people,  and  have  odd 
ideas  of  the  power  and  duty  of  their  monarchs  and 
of  their  own  rights  and  duties.  In  their  country  no 
son  has  the  right  to  resist  his  father,  even  if  he  be 
treated  with  tyrannical  cruelty.  But  in  regard  to 
the  emperor,  though  they  look  upon  him  as  the  father 
of  his  people,  they  claim  the  right  to  depose  him  and 
put  him  to  death  if  he  plays  the  tyrant.  So  long  as 
he  rules  with  justice  and  wisdom  both  man  and 
nature  acknowledge  his  authority,  but  if  he  violates 
the  principles  of  justice  and  goodness  the  Chinaman 
claims  the  right  to  rebel,  while  such  evils  of  nature 
as  pestilence  and  famine,  destructive  storms  and 
earthquakes,  are  held  as  proofs  that  Heaven  is  with- 
drawing from  the  weak  or  wicked  emperor  the  right 
to  rule. 

The  history  of  the  empire  is  full  of  instances  of 
popular  rebellions  against  offending  rulers,  some 
quelled,  others  hurling  the  monarch  from  his  throne, 
and  in  this  way  most  of  the  old  dynasties  ended  and 
new  ones  began.  The  course  of  events  brought  about 
such  a  state  of  affairs  in  the  nineteenth  century. 
Though  the  Chinese  have  never  been  content  with 
their  Manchu  rulers,  they  submitted  to  them  as  long 
as  they  were  just  and  public-spirited.  But  in  time 

323 


324  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

this  dynasty  suffered  the  fate  of  all  others,  weak 
emperors  following  the  strong  ones,  and  in  the 
reign  of  the  incompetent  Kea-king,  who  succeeded 
Keen  Lung,  rebellions  broke  out  in  a  dozen  quar- 
ters, pirates  ravaged  the  coast,  and  the  disaffection 
extended  throughout  the  realm. 

In  1820  this  weak  emperor  died,  and  was  succeeded 
by  Taou-kwang,  who  proved  even  less  fit  to  rule  than 
his  father,  devoting  himself  to  the  pursuit  of  pleasure 
and  leaving  the  empire  to  take  care  of  itself.  Soon 
new  rebels  were  in  the  field,  whom  the  armies  proved 
unable  to  put  down,  and  the  disorganization  of  the 
empire  made  rapid  progress.  Even  the  Meaou-tsze, 
or  hill-tribes,  the  descendants  of  the  first  inhabitants 
of  the  country,  rose  in  arms  and  defeated  an  army 
of  thirty  thousand  men.  "War  with  the  English 
added  to  the  discontent,  which  grew  greater  until 
1850,  when  the  emperor  died  and  his  son  Heen-fung 
ascended  the  throne. 

This  was  going  from  bad  to  worse.  The  new  em- 
peror was  still  more  selfish  and  tyrannical  than  his 
father,  and  under  the  control  of  his  craving  for  sen- 
sual pleasures  paid  no  heed  to  the  popular  cry  for 
reform.  The  discontent  was  now  coming  to  a  head. 
In  the  south  broke  out  a  revolt,  whose  leaders  pro- 
claimed as  emperor  a  youth  said  to  be  a  descendant 
of  the  Ming  dynasty,  who  took  the  royal  name  of 
Teen-tih,  or  "Heavenly  Virtue."  But  he  and  his 
followers  soon  vanished  before  another  and  abler 
aspirant  to  the  throne,  the  first  man  with  a  genius 
for  command  who  had  headed  any  of  these  rebel 
outbreaks. 


A   GEEAT   CHRISTIAN   MOVEMENT  AND   ITS   FATE.      325 

The  leader  of  this  remarkable  movement  sprang 
from  the  lowest  ranks  of  the  people,  being  the  son 
of  a  peasant  dwelling  in  a  village  near  Canton. 
Hung  Sew-tseuen  was  a  man  of  ardent  imagination 
and  religious  enthusiasm.  Strange  visions  came  to 
him,  and  held  him  captive  for  some  forty  days,  in 
which  the  visitors  of  his  dreaming  fancy  urged  him 
to  destroy  the  idols.  Some  years  afterwards  he  read 
a  Christian  pamphlet  containing  chapters  from  the 
Scriptures,  and  found  it  to  correspond  closely  with 
what  he  had  seen  and  heard  in  his  vision.  Inspired 
by  these  various  influences,  he  felt  himself  divinely 
commissioned  to  restore  his  country  to  the  worship 
of  the  true  God,  and  set  out  on  a  mission  to  convert 
the  people  to  his  new  faith. 

Fung-Yun-san,  one  of  his  first  converts,  ardently 
joined  him,  and  the  two  traversed  the  country  far 
and  wide,  preaching  the  religion  of  the  Christian 
God.  Their  success  was  great,  their  converts  all 
giving  up  the  worship  of  Confucius  and  renouncing 
idolatry.  Some  of  them  were  arrested  for  destroy- 
ing idols,  among  them  Fung-Yun-san,  but  on  the  way 
to  prison  he  converted  the  soldiers  of  his  guard,  who 
set  him  free  and  followed  him  as  disciples.  Many 
of  the  converts  were  seized  with  convulsions,  some 
professed  to  have  the  gift  of  healing,  and  the  move- 
ment took  on  the  phase  of  strong  religious  ecstasy 
and  enthusiasm. 

It  was  in  1850  that  this  effort  assumed  a  political 
character.  A  large  force  of  pirates  had  been  driven 
by  a  British  fleet  from  the  sea,  and  on  shore  they 
joined  the  bandits  of  the  south,  and  became  rebels 


326  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

against  the  Manchu  rule.  Hung's  converts  were 
mostly  among  this  people,  who  soon  took  a  strong 
stand  against  the  misrule  of  the  Tartars.  The  move- 
ment grew  rapidly.  From  all  sides  recruits  came  to 
the  rebel  ranks,  among  them  two  women  chiefs,  each 
at  the  head  of  about  two  thousand  men.  Hung  now 
proclaimed  himself  as  sent  by  Heaven  to  drive  out 
the  Tartars — whom  he  declared  to  be  examples  of 
all  that  was  base  and  vile — and  to  place  a  Chinese 
emperor  on  his  country's  throne. 

Putting  his  forces  in  march,  Hung  made  a  remark- 
able progress  of  about  one  thousand  miles  to  Woo- 
chang  on  the  Yang-tse-Kiang  and  down  that  stream, 
the  army  fighting  its  way  through  all  opposition. 
"When  towns  and  cities  submitted  their  people  were 
spared.  Slaughter  awaited  those  who  resisted.  Food 
and  clothing  were  obtained  by  requisition  on  the 
people.  The  imperial  troops  were  hurled  back  in 
defeat  wherever  met.  Before  battle  it  was  the  cus- 
tom of  the  insurgents  to  kneel  down  and  invoke  the 
protection  of  God,  after  which  they  would  charge 
their  enemies  with  resistless  zeal.  City  after  city 
fell  before  them,  and  the  whole  empire  regarded  their 
march  with  surprise  and  dismay. 

The  converts  professed  faith  in  the  Christian  Scrip- 
tures, of  which  an  imperfect  translation  was  distrib- 
uted among  them.  Hung  announced  that  in  case  of 
success  the  Bible  would  be  substituted  for  the  works 
of  Confucius.  The  Sabbath  was  strictly  observed 
among  them,  forms  of  prayer  to  the  Supreme  Being 
were  in  constant  use,  and  Englishmen  who  came 
among  them  spoke  in  the  highest  terms  of  their 


A   GREAT   CHRISTIAN    MOVEMENT  AND   ITS   PATE.      327 

pious  devotion  and  their  great  kindliness  of  feeling. 
They  welcomed  Europeans  as  "  brethren  from  across 
the  sea"  and  as  fellow- worshippers  of  "  Yesu." 

From  Woo-chang  Hung  led  his  army  in  1852  down 
the  river  towards  Nanking,  which  he  had  fixed  upon 
as  the  capital  of  his  new  empire.  The  disaffection 
of  the  people  of  Nanking  was  so  great  that  little 
resistance  was  made  except  by  the  Tartar  garrison, 
who  were  all  put  to  death  when  the  city  fell.  Being 
now  in  possession  of  the  ancient  capital  of  the  king- 
dom, Hung  proclaimed  himself  emperor  under  the 
name  of  Teen  Wang,  or  "  Heavenly  King,"  giving  to 
his  dynasty  the  title  of  the  Tai-ping. 

And  now  for  a  number  of  years  victory  followed 
every  movement  of  the  Tai-ping  army.  Four  lead- 
ing cities  of  Central  China  were  quickly  occupied, 
and  a  brilliant  march  to  the  north  was  begun,  in 
which,  cutting  loose  from  its  base  of  supplies,  the 
rebel  host  forced  its  way  through  all  obstacles.  The 
army  penetrated  as  far  north  as  Tien-tsin,  and  Pe- 
king itself  was  in  imminent  peril,  being  saved  only 
by  a  severe  repulse  of  the  rebel  forces.  The  ad- 
vance of  the  British  and  French  upon  Peking  aided 
the  cause  of  the  insurgents,  and  fear  of  them  had 
much  to  do  with  the  prompt  surrender  of  the  city 
to  the  foreign  invaders. 

After  the  war  the  tide  of  the  insurrection  turned 
and  its  decline  began,  mainly  through  the  aid  given 
by  the  English  to  the  government  forces.  Ignoring 
the  fact  that  the  movement  was  a  Christian  one,  and 
might  have  gone  far  towards  establishing  Christi- 
anity among  the  Chinese,  and  friendly  relations  with 


328  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

foreign  peoples,  the  English  seemed  mainly  gov- 
erned by  the  circumstance  that  opium  was  pro- 
hibited by  the  Tai-ping  government  at  Nanking, 
the  trade  in  this  pernicious  drug  proving  a  far 
stronger  interest  with  them  than  the  hopeful  results 
from  the  missionary  movement. 

Operations  against  the  insurgents  took  place 
through  the  treaty  ports,  and  British  and  French 
troops  aided  the  imperial  forces.  The  British  cruis- 
ers treated  the  Tai-ping  junks  as  pirates,  because 
they  captured  Chinese  vessels,  and  the  soldiers  and 
sailors  of  Great  Britain  took  part  in  forty-three  bat- 
tles and  massacres  in  which  over  four  hundred  thou- 
sand of  the  Tai-pings  were  killed.  More  than  two 
millions  of  them  are  said  to  have  died  of  starvation 
in  the  famine  caused  by  the  operations  of  the  Chi- 
nese, British,  and  French  allies. 

General  Ward,  an  American,  led  a  force  of  natives 
against  them,  but  their  final  overthrow  was  due  to 
the  famous  Colonel  Gordon,  "  Chinese  Gordon,"  as 
he  was  subsequently  known.  He  was  not  long  in 
organizing  the  imperial  troops,  the  "  Ever-Victorious 
Army,"  into  a  powerful  force,  and  in  taking  the  field 
against  the  rebels.  From  that  day  their  fortunes 
declined.  City  after  city  was  taken  from  their  gar- 
risons, and  in  July.  1864,  Nanking  was  invested  with 
an  immense  army.  Its  fall  ended  the  hopes  of  the 
Tai-ping  dynasty.  For  three  days  the  slaughter  con- 
tinued in  its  streets,  while  the  new  emperor  avoided 
the  sword  of  the  foe  by  suicide.  Those  who  escaped 
fled  to  their  former  homes,  where  many  of  them 
joined  bauds  of  banditti. 


A    GREAT   CHRISTIAN   MOVEMENT   AND   ITS   PATE.      329 

Thus  came  to  a  disastrous  end,  through  the  aid  of 
foreign  arms,  the  most  remarkable  insurrectionary 
movement  that  China  has  ever  known.  What  would 
have  been  its  result  had  the  Chinese  been  left  to 
themselves  it  is  not  easy  to  say.  The  indications  are 
strong  that  the  Manchu  dynasty  would  have  fallen 
and  the  Chinese  regained  their  own  again.  And  the 
Christian  faith  and  worship  of  the  rebels,  with  their 
marked  friendliness  to  foreigners,  might  have  worked 
a  moral  and  political  revolution  in  the  Chinese  em- 
pire, and  lifted  that  ancient  land  into  a  far  higher 
position  than  it  occupies  to-day.  But  the  interests 
of  the  opium  trade  were  threatened,  and  before  this 
all  loftier  considerations  had  to  give  way. 


CO  RE  A  AND  ITS  NEIGHBORS. 

WE  have  thus  far  followed  the  course  of  two  dis- 
tinct streams  of  history,  that  of  Japan  and  that  of 
China,  flowing  near  each  other,  yet  touching  at  very 
few  points  in  their  course.  Near  the  end  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  these  two  streams  flowed  together, 
and  the  histories  of  the  two  countries  became  one, 
in  the  war  in  which  their  difference  in  military  skill 
was  so  strikingly  displayed.  Japan  made  use  of  the 
lessons  which  it  had  well  learned  in  its  forty  years 
of  intercourse  with  Europe.  China  fought  in  the 
obsolete  fashion  of  a  past  age.  As  a  result,  the  cum- 
bersome mediaeval  giant  went  down  before  the  alert 
modern  dwarf,  and  the  people  of  Eastern  Asia  were 
taught  a  new  and  astounding  lesson  in  the  art  of 
war. 

Between  China  and  Japan  lies  the  kingdom  of 
Corea,  separated  by  a  river  from  the  former,  by  a 
strait  of  the  ocean  from  the  latter,  claimed  as  a  vas- 
sal state  by  both,  yet  preserving  its  individuality  as 
a  state  against  the  pair.  It  has  often  been  invaded 
by  China,  but  never  conquered.  It  has  twice  been 
invaded  by  Japan,  as  described  in  preceding  tales, 
and  made  tributary,  but  not  conquered.  Thus  it  re- 
mained until  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when 
it  was  to  become  the  cause  of  a  war  between  the  two 
rival  empires. 
880 


COREA  AND   ITS  NEIGHBORS.  331 

During  the  long  history  of  China  and  Japan  these 
countries  very  rarely  came  into  conflict  with  each 
other.  Only  once  has  China  invaded  Japan,  when 
Kublai  Khan,  the  Mongol  emperor,  attempted  its 
conquest  with  a  great  fleet,  the  fate  of  which  we 
have  already  told.  This  effort  had  its  influence  upon 
Japan,  for  during  the  succeeding  three  centuries 
pirates  from  the  island  empire  boldly  raided  the 
coast  of  China,  devastating  the  maritime  provinces 
and  causing  immense  loss  and  suffering.  They  often 
built  forts  on  the  shore,  from  which  they  sallied  forth 
to  plunder  and  burn,  keeping  their  ships  at  hand 
ready  to  fly  if  defeated.  Thus  they  went  on,  plunder- 
ing and  destroying,  their  raids  reaching  a  ruinous 
stage  in  1553  and  the  succeeding  years.  They  de- 
feated the  Chinese  troops  in  several  battles,  ravaged 
the  whole  surrounding  country,  carried  off  immense 
quantities  of  spoil,  sold  multitudes  of  prisoners  into 
slavery,  and  in  seven  or  eight  years  slaughtered  over 
one  hundred  thousand  soldiers  and  citizens  of  China. 
The  raids  resembled  those  made  at  an  earlier  date  by 
the  Normans  on  the  coast  of  France  and  the  Danes 
on  that  of  England,  the  sea-rovers  pouncing  down 
at  unexpected  times  and  places  and  plundering  and 
burning  at  will. 

These  forays  of  the  pirates,  in  which  the  govern- 
ment took  no  part,  were  followed  in  1592  by  an  in- 
vasion in  force  of  the  kingdom  of  Corea.  In  this 
the  invaders  rapidly  swept  all  before  them,  quickly 
overrunning  the  southern  half  of  the  kingdom  and 
threatening  China.  The  Chinese  then  came  to  the 
aid  of  their  helpless  neighbors,  and  for  six  years  the 


332  HISTORICAL  TALKS. 

war  went  on,  the  Japanese  being  usually  successful 
in  the  field,  but  gradually  forced  back  from  want  of 
supplies,  as  the  country  was  devastated  and  their 
own  land  distant.  In  the  end  Hideyoshi,  the  sho- 
gun,  died,  and  the  army  was  withdrawn,  Japan  hold- 
ing the  port  of  Fusan  as  the  sole  result  of  its  costly 
effort.  This  Corean  port  it  still  retains. 

And  now  three  hundred  years  passed  away  in 
which  Corea  remained  free  and  isolated  from  the 
world.  It  wanted  no  more  intercourse  with  for- 
eigners. Once  a  year  a  fair  was  held  in  the  neutral 
zone  between  China  and  Corea,  but  any  Chinaman 
found  on  Corean  soil  after  the  fair  ended  was  liable 
to  be  put  to  death.  The  Japanese  were  kept  out  by 
laws  as  severe.  In  fact,  the  doors  of  the  kingdom 
were  closed  against  all  of  foreign  birth,  the  coasts 
carefully  patrolled,  and  beacon-fires  kindled  on  the 
hill-tops  to  warn  the  capital  whenever  any  strange 
vessel  came  within  sight.  All  foreigners  wrecked 
on  the  coast  were  to  be  held  as  prisoners  until  death. 
Such  was  the  threatened  fate  of  some  Dutch  sailors 
wrecked  there  during  the  seventeenth  century,  who 
escaped  after  fourteen  years'  confinement.  Dread 
of  China  and  Japan  induced  the  king  to  send  envoys 
with  tribute  to  Peking  and  Yedo,  but  the  tribute  was 
small,  and  the  isolation  was  maintained,  Corea  win- 
ning for  itself  the  names  of  the  Hermit  Nation  and 
the  Forbidden  Land. 

It  was  not  until  within  recent  years  that  this 
policy  of  isolation  was  overthrown  and  Corea  opened 
to  the  world.  How  this  was  done  may  be  briefly 
told.  In  spite  of  the  Corean  watchfulness,  some 


COREA   AND   ITS   NEIGHBORS.  333 

French  missionaries  long  ago  penetrated  into  the 
land  and  made  many  converts,  who  were  afterwards 
severely  persecuted.  French  fleets  were  sent  there 
in  1866  and  later,  and  a  fight  took  place  in  which 
the  French  were  repulsed.  In  consequence  the  per- 
secution of  the  Christians  grew  more  severe.  War- 
ships were  sent  by  different  nations  to  try  to  open 
trade,  but  in  vain,  and  finally  an  American  trading 
vessel  was  destroyed  and  its  crew  massacred. 

This  affair  brought  a  fleet  from  the  United  States 
to  the  coast  of  Corea  in  1871,  which,  being  fired  on 
from  the  shore,  attacked  and  captured  five  Corean 
forts.  The  opening  of  Corea  was  finally  due  to  Japan. 
In  1876  the  Japanese  did  what  Commodore  Perry 
had  done  to  themselves  twenty-two  years  before.  A 
fleet  was  sent  which  sailed  up  within  sight  of  Seoul, 
the  capital,  and  by  a  display  of  men  and  guns  forced 
the  government  to  sign  a  treaty  opening  the  country 
to  trade  through  the  port  of  Fusan.  In  1880  Che- 
mulpo was  also  made  an  open  port.  Two  years  after- 
wards a  United  States  fleet  obtained  similar  conces- 
sions, and  within  a  short  time  most  of  the  countries 
of  Europe  were  admitted  to  trade,  and  the  long 
isolation  of  the  Hermit  Kingdom  was  at  an  end. 

These  events  were  followed  by  a  rivalry  between 
China  and  Japan,  in  which  the  latter  country  showed 
itself  much  the  more  active  and  alert.  Imposing 
Japanese  consulates  were  built  in  Seoul,  flourishing 
settlements  were  laid  out,  and  energetic  steps  taken 
to  make  Japan  the  paramount  power  in  Corea.  As 
a  result,  the  Coreans  became  divided  into  two  fac- 
tions, a  progressive  one  which  favored  the  Japanese, 


334  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

and  a  conservative  one  which  was  more  in  touch 
with  the  backwardness  of  China  and  whose  members 
hated  the  stirring  islanders. 

In  1882  a  plot  was  formed  by  the  Min  faction,  the 
active  element  in  the  conservative  party,  to  drive 
the  Japanese  out  of  Seoul.  The  intruders  were  at- 
tacked, a  number  of  them  were  murdered,  and  the 
minister  and  others  had  to  fight  their  way  to  the 
sea-shore,  where  they  escaped  on  a  junk.  Two  years 
afterwards  a  similar  outbreak  took  place,  and  the 
Japanese  were  once  more  forced  to  fight  for  their 
lives  from  Seoul  to  the  sea.  On  this  occasion  Chi- 
nese soldiers  aided  the  Coreans,  an  act  which  threat- 
ened to  involve  Japan  and  China  in  war.  The  dis- 
pute was  settled  in  1885  by  a  treaty,  in  which  both 
countries  agreed  to  withdraw  their  troops  from  Corea 
and  to  send  no  officers  to  drill  the  Corean  troops.  If 
at  any  future  time  disturbances  should  call  for  the 
sending  of  troops  to  Corea,  each  country  must  notify 
the  other  before  doing  so.  And  thus,  for  nine  years, 
the  rivalry  of  the  foreign  powers  ceased. 

Meanwhile  internal  discontent  was  rife  in  the  Co- 
rean realm.  The  people  were  oppressed  by  heavy 
taxes  and  the  other  evils  of  tyranny  and  misgovern- 
ment,  excited  by  the  political  questions  described,  and 
stirred  to  great  feeling  by  the  labors  of  the  Christian 
missionaries  and  the  persecution  of  their  converts. 
One  outcome  of  this  was  a  new  religious  sect.  At  the 
same  time  that  the  Tai-ping  rebels  were  spreading 
their  new  doctrines  in  China,  a  prophet,  Choi-Chei- 
Ou  by  name,  arose  in  Corea,  who  taught  a  doctrine 
made  up  of  dogmas  of  the  three  religions  of  China, 


COREA   AND   ITS   NEIGHBORS.  335 

with  some  Christian  ideas  thrown  in.  This  prophet 
was  seized  as  a  Eoman  Catholic  in  1865  and  executed, 
but  his  followers,  known  as  the  Tong-Haks,  held 
firm  to  their  faith.  In  1893  some  of  them  appeared 
with  complaints  of  ill  usage  at  the  king's  palace,  and 
in  March,  1894,  they  broke  out  in  open  revolt,  and 
increased  in  numbers  so  rapidly  that  by  May  they 
were  said  to  be  twenty  thousand  strong. 

The  government  troops  drove  them  back  into  a 
mountain  region,  but  here  the  pursuers  were  cun- 
ningly led  into  an  ambuscade  and  routed  with  severe 
loss.  This  victory  of  the  rebels  filled  the  government 
with  consternation,  which  became  greater  when  the 
insurgents,  on  June  1,  took  the  capital  of  the  prov- 
ince of  Cholla.  It  was  now  feared  that  they  would 
soon  be  at  the  gates  of  Seoul. 

This  insurrection  of  the  Tong-Haks  was  the  in- 
citing cause  of  the  war  between  China  and  Japan. 
The  Min  faction,  then  at  the  head  of  affairs,  was  so 
alarmed  that  aid  from  China  was  implored,  and  a 
force  of  about  two  thousand  Chinese  troops  was  sent 
to  the  port  of  Asan.  Some  Chinese  men-of-war  were 
also  despatched.  This  action  of  China  was  quickly 
followed  by  similar  action  on  the  part  of  Japan, 
which  was  jealous  of  any  Chinese  movement  in 
Corea.  The  Japanese  minister,  who  had  been  ab- 
sent, returned  to  Seoul  with  four  hundred  marines. 
Other  troops  quickly  followed,  and  in  a  short  time 
there  were  several  thousand  Japanese  soldiers  sta- 
tioned around  the  Corean  capital. 

The  sending  of  troops  to  Corea  was  succeeded  by 
disputes  between  the  two  foreign  powers.  China 


336  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

claimed  to  be  suzerain  of  Corea,  a  claim  which  Japan 
sternly  denied.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Japanese 
government  declared  that  the  Tong-Hak  movement 
was  a  natural  result  of  the  prevailing  misgovern- 
ment,  and  could  not  be  overcome  unless  radical  re- 
forms were  carried  out.  China  was  asked  to  take 
part  in  instituting  a  series  of  reforms,  but  declined. 

The  situation  quickly  grew  serious.  The  Mins, 
who  controlled  the  government,  declared  that  the 
Japanese  troops  must  be  withdrawn  before  the  re- 
forms could  be  instituted.  The  Japanese  refused. 
Neither  China  nor  Japan  would  yield,  but  the  latter 
held  the  capital  and  had  the  controlling  position. 

It  was  not  long  before  a  crisis  came.  On  July  20, 
Otori,  the  Japanese  minister,  made  certain  demands 
on  the  Corean  government,  and  stated  that  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Chinese  soldiers  was  a  threat  to  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  country,  their  general  having  pro- 
claimed that  Corea  was  a  vassal  state.  On  the  22d  the 
officials  answered  that  the  Chinese  had  come  at  their 
request  and  would  stay  until  asked  to  leave.  The 
next  step  of  the  Japanese  was  a  warlike  one.  On  the 
early  morning  of  the  23d  two  battalions  marched 
from  their  camp,  stating  that  they  were  going  to  at- 
tack the  Chinese  at  Asan.  But  they  quickly  changed 
the  direction  of  their  march,  advanced  upon  the  pal- 
ace, drove  out  the  Corean  guard,  and  took  possession 
both  of  the  palace  and  of  the  king.  They  declared 
they  had  come  to  deliver  him  from  an  obnoxious  fac- 
tion and  restore  his  freedom  of  action. 

The  Min  party  was  at  once  driven  out  and  replaced 
by  new  officials  chosen  from  the  progressive  faction. 


COREA   AND   ITS   NEIGHBORS.  337 

With  a  feeble  resistance,  in  which  only  two  men  were 
killed  and  a  few  wounded,  a  revolution  had  been  ac- 
complished and  a  government  which  favored  Japan 
established.  The  new  authorities  at  once  declared  the 
Chinese  at  Asan  to  be  intruders  instead  of  defenders, 
and  requested  the  aid  of  the  Japanese  to  drive  them 
out.  War  between  China  and  Japan  was  at  hand. 

Hostilities  were  precipitated  by  a  startling  event. 
On  July  25  three  Japanese  men-of-war,  cruising  in 
the  Yellow  Sea,  sighted  two  ships  of  the  Chinese 
navy  convoying  a  transport  which  had  on  board 
about  twelve  hundred  troops.  They  were  a  portion 
of  a  large  force  which  was  being  sent  to  Corea  with 
the  purpose  of  reinforcing  the  troops  at  Asan  and 
expelling  the  Japanese. 

The  Chinese  ships  were  cleared  for  action,  and, 
though  the  Japanese  were  ignorant  of  the  late  event 
at  Seoul,  they  at  once  accepted  the  wager  of  battle, 
and  attacked  the  ships  of  the  enemy  with  such  effect 
that  they  were  quickly  crippled  and  put  to  flight. 
The  Naniwa,  the  Japanese  flagship,  now  approached 
the  transport,  a  chartered  British  vessel  named  the 
Kowshing  and  flying  the  British  flag.  A  boat  was 
sent  from  the  Japanese  cruiser  to  the  steamer,  her 
papers  were  examined,  and  orders  given  that  she 
should  follow  the  Naniwa.  This  the  Chinese  gen- 
erals refused  to  do,  excitedly  declaring  that  they 
would  perish  rather  than  be  taken  prisoners.  Their 
excitement  was  shared  by  the  troops,  who  ran  wildly 
about  the  deck,  threatening  the  officers  and  the 
Europeans  on  board  with  death  if  they  attempted 
to  obey  the  order  of  the  enemy. 
22 


338  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

They  trusted  to  the  protection  of  the  British  flag, 
but  it  proved  of  no  avail,  for  the  captain  of  the 
Naniwa,  finding  his  orders  defied,  opened  fire  on  the 
transport,  with  such  effect  that  in  half  an  hour  it  went 
to  the  bottom,  carrying  down  with  it  over  one  thou- 
sand souls.  The  officers,  the  Europeans,  and  many  of 
the  Chinese  sprang  overboard,  but  numbers  of  these 
were  shot  in  the  water  by  the  frantic  soldiers  on  board. 
In  all  only  about  one  hundred  and  seventy  escaped. 

This  terrible  act  of  war  at  sea  was  accompanied 
by  a  warlike  movement  on  land,  the  Japanese  forces 
leaving  Seoul  on  the  same  day  to  march  on  Asan 
and  expel  the  Chinese.  On  the  29th  they  attacked 
the  enemy  in  their  works  and  quickly  drove  them 
out,  little  resistance  being  made.  These  events  pre- 
ceded the  declaration  of  war,  which  was  made  by 
both  countries  on  August  1,  1894. 

The  story  of  the  war  that  followed  was  one  of 
unceasing  victory  for  the  Japanese,  their  enemy 
making  scarcely  an  effort  at  resistance,  and  fleeing 
from  powerful  strongholds  on  which  they  had  ex- 
pended months  of  hard  labor  with  scarcely  a  blow 
in  their  defence.  Such  was  the  case  with  Port  Ar- 
thur, which  in  other  hands  might  have  proved  a  Gib- 
raltar to  assailing  troops.  The  war  continued  until 
April  17,  1895,  when  a  treaty  of  peace  was  signed, 
which  remarkably  changed  the  relative  positions  of 
the  two  powers  before  the  world,  China  having  met 
with  utter  and  irretrievable  defeat.  The  war  yielded 
but  a  single  event  of  novel  interest,  the  famous  naval 
battle  of  Hai-yang,  which  we  shall  describe  more  at 
length. 


THE  BATTLE   OF  THE  IRON- 
CLADS. 

IN  these  latter  days  the  world  seems  overturned. 
Events  of  startling  interest  are  every  year  taking 
place,  new  discoveries  are  made,  new  inventions 
produced,  new  explorations  completed,  peoples  and 
tribes  formerly  not  even  known  by  name  are  be- 
coming prominent  in  daily  history,  and  nations 
which  seemed  sunk  in  a  death-like  slumber  are 
awakening  and  claiming  a  place  among  the  leading 
powers  of  the  world.  And  of  all  these  events  per- 
haps the  most  astounding  is  that  which  took  place 
in  September,  1894,  the  battle  of  iron-clads  in  the 
Yellow  Sea. 

About  forty  years  before  there  had  begun  among 
Western  nations  a  remarkable  revolution  in  naval  war- 
fare, the  substitution  of  the  iron-clad  for  the  wooden 
man-of-war.  During  the  interval  this  evolution  of 
the  iron-clad  had  gone  briskly  on,  until  by  1894  the 
nations  of  Europe  and  America  possessed  fleets  of 
such  wonderful  powers  of  resistance  that  the  naval 
artillery  of  the  past  would  have  had  no  more  eifect 
upon  them  than  hailstones  upon  an  iron  roof.  But  a 
revolution  in  artillery  had  also  taken  place.  The  old 
smooth-bore  guns  had  been  replaced  by  great  rifled 
cannon  capable  of  sending  a  heavy  ball  for  ten  or 
twelve  miles  and  of  piercing  through  steel  plates  of 

339 


340  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

moderate  thickness  as  through  so  much  paper.  With 
these  came  the  quick-fire  guns,  from  whose  gaping 
mouths  cannon-balls  could  be  rained  like  the  drops 
of  a  rapid  shower,  and  the  torpedoes,  capable  of 
tearing  ruinous  holes  in  the  sides  and  bottoms  of 
the  mightiest  ships. 

Such  was  the  work  that  was  doing  in  the  West 
while  the  East  slept  calmly  on.  But  no  occasion 
had  arisen  for  putting  to  the  proof  these  great  float- 
ing engines  of  war.  Theories  in  abundance  were 
offered  of  the  probable  effect  upon  one  another  of 
two  modern  fleets,  but  the  dread  of  terrible  results 
had  a  potent  influence,  and  fear  of  the  destructive 
powers  of  modern  ships  and  armies  had  proved  the 
strongest  of  arguments  in  keeping  the  nations  of 
the  world  at  peace. 

The  astounding  event  spoken  of  is  the  fact  that 
the  iron-clad  battle-ship  of  the  present  day  was  first 
put  to  proof  in  the  waters  of  the  Yellow  Sea,  in  a 
war  between  two  nations  which  half  a  century  be- 
fore were  hardly  beyond  the  bow-and-arrow  stage 
of  warfare,  and  were  still  novices  in  the  modern  art 
of  war.  The  naval  inventions  made  in  Europe  and 
America  had  their  first  trial  in  a  conflict  between 
China  and  Japan,  and  the  interest  with  which  mari- 
time nations  read  of  the  doings  of  these  powerful 
engines  of  war  in  those  far-off  waters  was  intense. 

Japan  had  been  alert  in  availing  itself  of  all  the 
world  knew  about  war,  providing  its  army  with  the 
best  modern  weapons  and  organizing  them  in  the 
most  effective  European  method,  while  purchased 
iron-clads  replaced  its  old  fleet  of  junks.  China, 


THE   BATTLE   OF   THE   IRON-CLADS.  341 

though  doing  little  for  the  improvement  of  its  army, 
had  Bought  itself  a  modern  fleet,  two  of  its  ships,  the 
Ting-yuen  and  Chen-yuen,  having  fourteen  inches 
of  iron  armor,  and  surpassing  in  size  and  strength 
anything  that  Japan  had  to  show.  These  vessels 
•were  all  armed  with  the  most  effective  of  modern 
weapons,  were  handled  by  men  trained  in  the  theories 
of  European  war,  and  seemed  capable  of  the  most 
destructive  results. 

On  the  17th  of  September,  1894,  an  epoch-making 
battle  of  these  iron-clads  took  place.  It  was  a  re- 
markably different  event  from  the  first  engagement 
of  this  sort,  that  between  the  Monitor  and  the 
Merrimac  in  Hampton  Eoads,  for  the  guns  now 
brought  into  play  would  have  pierced  the  armor  of 
those  vessels  as  if  it  had  been  made  of  tin.  The 
Japanese  squadron  had  just  convoyed  a  fleet  of  trans- 
ports, bearing  ten  thousand  troops  and  thirty-five 
hundred  horses,  to  Chemulpo,  near  the  Corean  capital. 
The  Chinese  squadron  had  similarly  convoyed  four 
thousand  troops  to  the  Yalu  Eiver.  These  were 
landed  on  the  16th,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  17th 
the  fleet  started  on  its  return.  On  the  same  morning 
the  Japanese  fleet  reached  the  island  of  Hai-yang, 
leaving  their  torpedo-boats  behind,  as  there  was  n& 
thought  of  fighting  a  battle.  About  nine  o'clock 
smoke  was  seen  in  the  distance,  and  at  eleven-forty 
the  Chinese  fleet  came  into  sight. 

The  Japanese  fleet  consisted  of  ten  vessels,  the 
First  Flying  Squadron,  consisting  of  four  fine  cruisers 
of  high  speed,  and  the  Main  Squadron,  composed  of 
six  vessels  of  lower  speed.  There  were  two  smaller 


342  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

ships,  of  DO  value  as  fighting  vessels.  The  Chinese 
fleet  was  composed  of  twelve  vessels  and  six  tor- 
pedo-boats, though  two  of  the  vessels  and  the  tor- 
pedo-boats were  at  a  distance,  so  that  the  effective 
fighting  force  on  each  side  was  composed  of  ten 
ships-of-war.  The  Chinese  fleet  included  the  two 
great  ships  already  named,  the  Ting-yuen  and  Chen- 
yuen.  The  latter,  as  has  been  said,  were  heavily 
armored.  The  other  Chinese  ships  were  lightly  pro- 
tected, and  some  of  them  not  at  all.  None  of  the 
Japanese  vessels  had  external  armor,  their  protection 
consisting  of  steel  decks  and  internal  lining  down 
to  the  water-line. 

On  perceiving  the  enemy's  ships,  Admiral  Ito,  of 
the  Japanese  fleet,  at  once  gave  orders  to  his  cap- 
tains to  prepare  for  action.  Ting,  the  Chinese  ad- 
miral, did  the  same,  drawing  up  his  fleet  in  a  single 
line,  with  the  large  ships  in  the  centre  and  the 
weaker  ones  on  the  wings.  Ito,  who  proposed  to 
take  advantage  of  the  superior  speed  of  his  ships 
and  circle  round  his  adversary,  drew  up  his  vessels 
in  a  single  column  with  the  Flying  Squadron  at  the 
head. 

The  action  began  at  1  P.M.,  the  Chinese  opening 
fire  at  about  six  thousand  yards,  the  Japanese  re- 
serving their  fire  until  at  half  that  distance.  Ito 
headed  his  ships  straight  for  the  centre  of  the  Chi- 
nese line,  but  on  drawing  near  they  swerved  so  as  to 
pass  the  Chinese  right  wing,  their  speed  being  at 
the  same  time  increased.  As  the  Yoshino,  which 
led  the  movement,  came  up,  she  became  a  target  for 
the  whole  Chinese  fleet,  but  her  speed  soon  carried 


THE   BATTLE  OF  THE   IRON-CLADS.  343 

her  out  of  danger,  the  Flying  Squadron  sweeping 
swiftly  past  the  Chinese  right  wing  and  pouring  a 
deadly  fire  on  the  unprotected  vessels  there  posted 
as  they  passed.  The  stream  of  shells  from  the  rapid- 
fire  guns  tore  the  wood-work  of  these  vessels  into 
splinters  and  set  it  on  fire,  the  nearest  ship,  the 
Yang  Wei,  soon  bursting  into  flames. 

The  Japanese  admiral,  keeping  at  a  distance  from 
the  large  central  vessels  with  their  heavy  guns,  and 
concentrating  his  fire  on  the  smaller  flanking  ships, 
continued  his  evolution,  the  Main  Squadron  follow- 
ing the  Flying  Squadron  past  the  Chinese  right 
wing  and  pouring  its  fire  on  the  second  ship  in  the 
line,  the  Chao-yung,  which,  like  its  consort,  was 
soon  in  flames.  This  movement,  however,  proved  a 
disadvantage  to  the  slower  vessels  of  the  Japanese 
fleet,  which  could  not  keep  pace  with  their  consorts, 
particularly  to  the  Hiyei,  which  lagged  so  far  in  the 
rear  as  to  become  exposed  to  the  fire  of  the  whole 
Chinese  fleet,  now  rapidly  forging  ahead.  In  this 
dilemma  its  commander  took  a  bold  resolve.  Turn- 
ing, he  ran  directly  for  the  line  of  the  enemy,  pass- 
ing between  the  Ting-yuen  and  the  King-yuen  at  five 
hundred  yards'  distance.  Two  torpedoes  which  were 
launched  at  him  fortunately  missed,  but  he  had  to 
bear  the  fire  of  several  of  his  antagonists,  and  came 
through  the  line  with  his  vessel  in  flames.  The 
Akagi,  a  little  Japanese  gunboat,  hurried  to  his  aid, 
though  seriously  cut  up  by  the  fire  of  the  Lai-yuen, 
which  pursued  until  set  on  fire  and  forced  to  with- 
draw by  a  lucky  shot  in  return.  Meanwhile  the  Fly- 
ing Squadron  had  wheeled  to  meet  the  two  distant 


344  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

Chinese  ships,  which  were  hastily  coming  up  in  com- 
pany with  the  torpedo-boats.  On  seeing  this  move- 
ment they  drew  back  and  kept  well  out  of  reach. 
Somewhat  later  these  vessels  took  part  in  the  ac- 
tion, though  not  an  important  one.  At  2.23  P.M.  the 
Chao-yang,  which  had  been  riddled  by  the  fire  of 
the  Main  Squadron,  sank,  the  cries  of  the  drowning 
men  sounding  above  the  roar  of  the  cannon  as  she 
went  down. 

As  a  result  of  the  Japanese  evolution,  the  two 
squadrons  finally  closed  in  on  the  Chinese  fleet  on 
both  sides  and  the  battle  reached  its  most  furious 
phase.  The  two  flag-ships,  the  Japanese  Matsushima 
and  the  Chinese  Ting-yuen,  poured  the  fire  of  their 
great  guns  upon  each  other  with  terrible  effect,  the 
wood-work  of  the  Chinese  iron-clad  being  soon  in 
flames,  while  a  shell  that  burst  on  the  Matsushima  ex- 
ploded a  heap  of  ammunition  and  killed  or  wounded 
eighty  men.  Fire  broke  out,  but  it  was  soon  ex- 
tinguished. Almost  all  the  Japanese  gunners  were 
killed,  but  volunteers  pressed  forward  to  take  their 
place,  among  them  even  the  band-players. 

On  the  Chinese  flag-ship  the  flames  drove  the  gun- 
ners from  their  pieces,  and  she  would  probably  have 
been  destroyed  had  not  the  Chen-yuen  come  bravely 
to  her  aid.  The  fire  was  finally  extinguished  by  the 
aid  of  some  foreigners  who  were  on  board.'  It  may 
be  said  here  that  the  fire-drill  of  the  Japanese  was 
far  superior  to  that  of  their  foes. 

The  Japanese  continued  their  circling  movement 
around  their  slower  antagonists,  pouring  a  concen- 
trated fire  upon  the  weaker  vessels,  of  which  the 


THE   BATTLE   OP  THE   IRON-CLADS.  345 

Chih-yuen  was  sunk  at  about  3.30  P.M.  and  the  King- 
yuen  at  4.48.  By  this  time  the  Chinese  fleet  was  in 
the  greatest  disorder,  its  line  broken,  some  of  its  ves- 
sels in  full  flight,  and  all  coherence  gone.  The  fire 
of  the  Japanese  fleet  was  now  principally  directed 
against  the  two  large  iron-clads,  but  the  fourteen- 
inch  armor  of  these  resisted  the  heaviest  guns  in  the 
Japanese  fleet,  and,  though  their  upper  works  were 
riddled  and  burnt,  they  were  able  to  continue  the 
battle. 

In  the  fight  here  described  the  Japanese  had 
shown  a  discipline  and  a  skill  in  naval  tactics  far  su- 
perior to  those  of  their  foes.  They  had  kept  at  a 
distance  of  about  four  thousand  yards  from  their 
antagonists,  so  as  to  avoid  their  heavy  fire  and  make 
the  most  advantageous  use  of  their  larger  number 
of  rapid-fire  guns  and  also  of  their  much  better 
marksmanship.  The  result  of  the  battle  was  not  due 
to  greater  courage,  but  to  superior  skill  and  more 
effective  armament. 

At  nightfall,  as  the  torpedo-boats  had  now  joined 
the  Chinese  fleet,  the  Japanese  drew  off,  not  caring 
to  risk  the  perils  of  a  battle  at  night  with  such  an- 
tagonists, both  sides  being  also  exhausted  by  the  long 
fight.  The  next  morning  the  Chinese  fleet  had  dis- 
appeared. It  had  lost  four  vessels  in  the  fight,  and 
a  fifth'  afterwards  ran  ashore  and  was  blown  up. 
Two  of  the  Japanese  ships  were  badly  damaged,  but 
none  were  lost,  while  the  total  loss  in  killed  and 
wounded  was  two  hundred  and  eighteen,  nearly  half 
of  them  on  the  flag-ship.  The  Chinese  lost  far  more 
heavily,  from  the  sinking  of  a  number  of  their  ships. 


346  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

Thus  ended  the  typical  battle  of  modern  naval 
warfare,  one  whose  result  was  mainly  due  to  the 
greater  speed  and  rapid  evolutions  of  the  Japanese 
ships  and  the  skill  with  which  they  concentrated  a 
crushing  fire  on  the  weak  points  of  the  enemy's 
line.  The  work  of  the  quick-firing  guns  was  the 
most  striking  feature  of  the  battle,  while  the  absence 
of  torpedo-boats  prevented  that  essential  element  of 
a  modern  fleet  from  being  brought  into  play.  An 
important  lesson  learned  was  that  too  much  wood- 
work in  an  iron -clad  vessel  is  a  dangerous  feature, 
and  naval  architects  have  since  done  their  best  to 
avoid  this  weak  point  in  the  construction  of  ships- 
of-war.  But  the  most  remarkable  characteristic  of 
the  affair  is  that  the  battle  was  fought  by  two  nations 
which,  had  the  war  broken  out  forty  years  before, 
would  have  done  their  naval  fighting  with  fleets  of 
junks. 

It  may  be  said  in  conclusion  that  the  Chinese  fleet 
was  annihilated  in  the  later  attack  on  the  port  of 
Wei-hai-wei,  many  of  the  vessels  being  destroyed 
by  torpedo-boats,  and  the  remainder,  unable  to  es- 
cape from  the  harbor,  being  forced  to  surrender  to 
the  Japanese.  Thus  ended  in  utter  disaster  to  China 
the  naval  war. 


PROGRESS  IN  JAPAN  AND 
CHINA. 

WE  have  in  the  preceding  tales  brought  down 
from  a  remote  period  the  history  of  the  two  oldest 
nations  now  existing  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  There 
are  peoples  as  old,  but  none  others  which  have  kept 
intact  their  national  organization  and  form  of  gov- 
ernment for  thousands  of  years.  Invasion,  conquest, 
rebellion,  revolution,  have  kept  the  rest  of  the  world 
in  a  busy  stir  and  caused  frequent  changes  in  nations 
and  governments.  But  Japan  and  China  lay  aside 
from  the  broad  current  cf  invasion,  removed  from 
the  general  seat  of  war,  and  no  internal  convulsion 
or  local  invasion  had  been  strong  enough  to  change 
their  political  systems  or  modes  of  life.  And  thus 
these  two  isolated  empires  of  the  East  drifted  down 
intact  through  the  ages  to  the  middle  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  when  their  millennial  sleep  was  rudely 
broken  and  their  policy  of  isolation  overthrown. 

This  was  due,  as  has  been  shown,  to  the  coming 
of  the  navies  of  Europe  and  America,  bent  on 
breaking  down  the  barriers  that  had  been  raised 
against  the  civilization  of  the  West  and  forcing  these 
remote  empires  to  enter  the  concert  of  the  nations 
and  open  their  ports  to  the  commerce  of  the  world. 
Concerning  all  this  we  have  no  tales  to  tell,  but  a 
brief  account  of  the  effect  of  foreign  intercourse  upon 

847 


348  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

China  and  Japan  will  fitly  serve  to  close  our  work 
and  outline  the  recent  history  of  these  two  great 
powers  of  the  East. 

There  are  marked  differences  of  character  between 
the  Chinese  and  the  Japanese,  and  these  differences 
have  had  a  striking  effect  upon  their  recent  history. 
In  the  Japanese  we  find  a  warlike  and  aggressive  peo- 
ple, a  stirring  and  inquisitive  race,  not,  like  their  neigh- 
bors on  the  continent,  lost  in  contemplation  of  their 
ancient  literature  and  disdainful  of  any  civilization 
but  their  own,  but  read}'  and  eager  to  avail  themselves 
of  all  that  the  world  has  to  offer  worth  the  having. 
In  the  Chinese  we  find  a  non-aggressive  people,  by 
nature  and  custom  disinclined  to  war,  asking  only, 
so  far  as  outer  nations  are  concerned,  to  be  let  alone, 
and  in  no  sense  inquisitive  concerning  the  doings  of 
the  world  at  large.  Of  their  civilization,  which  goes 
back  beyond  the  reputed  date  of  the  Deluge,  they 
are  intensely  proud,  their  ancient  literature,  in  their 
conception,  is  far  superior  to  the  literatures  of  all 
other  nations,  and  their  self-satisfastion  is  so  in- 
grained that  they  still  stand  aloof  in  mental  isola- 
tion from  the  world,  only  the  most  progressive  among 
them  seeing  anything  to  be  gained  from  foreign  arts. 
These  differences  in  character  have  given  rise  to  a 
remarkable  difference  in  results.  The  Japanese  have 
been  alert  in  availing  themselves  of  all  things  new, 
the  Chinese  torpid  and  slow,  sluggishly  resisting 
change,  hardly  yielding  even  to  the  logic  of  war. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  history  of  the  world  to 
match  the  phenomenal  progress  of  Japan  since  the 
visit  of  Commodore  Perry  in  1853.  If  it  had  been 


PROGRESS   IN   JAPAN   AND   CHINA.  349 

the  people  of  the  United  States,  instead  of  those  of 
that  archipelago  of  the  Eastern  seas,  that  in  this  way 
first  gained  a  knowledge  of  the  progress  of  the  outer 
world,  they  could  not  have  been  readier  in  changing 
their  old  institutions  and  ideas  and  accepting  a  new 
and  strange  civilization  offered  them  from  alar  than 
have  been  the  alert  islanders  of  the  East. 

When  the  American  fleet  entered  the  Bay  of  Yedo 
it  found  itself  in  the  heart  of  a  civilization  and  in- 
stitutions a  thousand  years  and  more  of  age.  The 
shogun,  the  military  chief,  was  the  actual  ruler  of 
Japan,  as  he  had  been  for  many  centuries  before, 
the  mikado,  the  titular  ruler,  being  still  buried  in 
that  isolation  into  which  he  had  long  since  with- 
drawn. It  was  only  a  dim  tradition  with  the  people 
that  the  mikado  had  ever  been  emperor  in  fact,  and 
they  looked  on  him  as  a  religious  potentate  to  be 
worshipped,  not  as  a  ruler  to  be  obeyed.  The  feudal 
system,  established  in  the  past  centuries,  was  still 
intact,  the  provincial  lords  and  princes  being  held 
in  strict  vassalage  by  the  shogun,  or  tai-kun  (great 
king),  as  he  then  first  termed  himself.  In  truth, 
Japan  was  still  in  its  mediaeval  state,  from  which  it 
showed  scarcely  a  sign  of  emerging. 

The  coming  of  the  foreigners  made  a  sudden  and 
decided  change  in  the  situation.  Within  less  than 
twenty  years  the  whole  condition  of  affaire  had  been 
overturned ;  the  shogun  had  been  deposed  from  his 
high  estate,  the  mikado  had  come  to  his  own  again, 
the  feudal  system  had  been  abolished,  and  the  people 
beheld  with  surprise  and  delight  their  spiritual  em- 
peror at  the  head  of  the  state,  absolute  lord  of  their 


350  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

secular  world,  while  the  military  tyranny  under 
which  they  so  long  had  groaned  was  irremediably 
annulled. 

Such  was  the  first  great  step  in  the  political  revo- 
lution of  Japan.  It  was  followed  by  another  and 
still  greater  one,  an  act  without  a  parallel  in  the  his- 
tory of  autocratic  governments.  This  was  the  vol- 
untary relinquishment  of  absolutism  by  the  emperor, 
the  calling  together  of  a  parliament,  and  the  adoption 
of  a  representative  government  on  the  types  of  those 
of  the  West.  In  all  history  we  can  recall  no  similar 
event.  All  preceding  parliaments  came  into  exist- 
ence through  revolution  or  gradual  growth,  in  no 
other  instance  through  the  voluntary  abdication  of 
autocratic  power  and  the  adoption  of  parliamentary 
rule  by  an  emperor  moved  alone  by  a  desire  for  the 
good  of  his  people  and  the  reform  of  the  system  of 
government. 

Japan  had  learned  the  lesson  of  civilization  swiftly 
and  well,  her  ablest  sons  devoting  themselves  to  the 
task  of  bringing  their  country  to  the  level  of  the 
foremost  nations  of  the  earth.  Young  men  in  num- 
bers were  sent  abroad  to  observe  the  ways  of  the 
civilized  world,  to  become  familiar  with  its  industries, 
and  to  study  in  its  universities,  and  these  on  their 
return  were  placed  at  the  head  of  affairs,  industrial, 
educational,  and  political.  No  branch  of  modern  art 
and  science  was  neglected,  the  best  to  be  had  from 
every  nation  being  intelligently  studied  by  the  in- 
quisitive and  quick-witted  island  youth. 

The  war  with  China  first  revealed  to  the  world  the 
marvellous "  progress  of  Japan  in  the  military  art. 


PROGRESS  IN  JAPAN  AND  CHINA.       351 

Her  armies  were  armed  and  disciplined  in  accord- 
ance with  the  best  system  of  the  West,  and  her 
warlike  operations  conducted  on  the  most  approved 
methods,  though  only  native  officers  were  employed. 
The  rapidity  with  which  troops,  amounting  to  eighty 
thousand  in  all,  and  the  necessary  supplies  were  car- 
ried across  the  sea,  and  the  skilful  evolution,  under 
native  officers,  of  a  fleet  of  vessels  of  a  type  not 
dreamed  of  in  Japan  thirty  years  before,  was  a  new 
revelation  to  the  observing  world.  And  in  another 
direction  it  was  made  evident  that  Japan  had  learned 
a  valuable  lesson  from  the  nations  of  Christendom. 
Instead  of  the  massacres  of  their  earlier  wars,  they 
now  displayed  the  most  humanitarian  moderation. 
There  was  no  ill  treatment  of  the  peaceful  inhabi- 
tants, while  ambulances  and  field  hospitals  were  put 
at  the  disposal  of  the  wounded  of  both  sides,  with  a 
humane  kindness  greatly  to  be  commended. 

But  the  lessons  taught  in  this  war  were  of  minor 
interest  and  importance  in  comparison  with  those  of 
a  much  greater  war  ten  years  later.  In  those  ten 
years  the  progress  of  Japan  had  been  proceeding 
with  accelerated  rapidity.  There  was  little  of  lead- 
ing value  in  the  arts  and  industries  of  the  West 
which  had  not  been  introduced  into  this  island  em- 
pire, the  equipment  of  her  army  vied  with  that  of 
the  most  advanced  powers,  her  navy  possessed  a 
number  of  the  most  powerful  type  of  steel-clad 
battle-ships,  she  had  been  admitted  into  the  family 
of  the  great  nations  by  a  compact  on  equal  terms 
with  Great  Britain,  and  she  had  become  adapted  to 
cope  with  powers  vastly  more  capable  in  the  arts  of 


352  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

war  than  China,  to  deal,  indeed,  with  one  of  the 
greatest  and  much  the  most  populous  of  European 
nations. 

This  was  soon  to  be  shown.  The  Boxer  outbreak 
of  1900  in  China  ended  with  Manchuria  practically 
possessed  by  Eussia,  a  possession  which  that  nation 
seemed  disposed  to  maintain  in  defiance  of  treaty 
obligations  to  China  and  of  the  energetic  protest  of 
Japan.  As  a  result,  to  the  surprise,  almost  to  the 
consternation  of  the  world,  Japan  boldly  engaged  in 
war  with  the  huge  colossus  which  bestrode  Asia  and 
half  of  Europe,  and  to  the  amazement  of  the  nations 
showed  a  military  aptitude  and  preparation  and  a 
command  of  resources  which  enabled  her  to  defeat 
the  armies  of  Russia  in  every  engagement,  to  cap- 
ture the  great  stronghold  of  Port  Arthur,  to  win 
victories  on  the  sea  as  notable  as  those  on  the  land, 
and  in  the  end  to  impose  upon  Russia  a  treaty  of 
peace  humiliating  in  its  provisions  to  the  proud 
Muscovite  court.  This  victorious  war  settled  the 
status  of  Japan  so  far  as  the  decision  of  the  nations 
was  concerned.  The  island  empire  was  definitely 
accepted  as  one  of  the  great  powers  of  the  world. 
Its  standing  in  war  had  been  established,  and  was 
rapidly  being  matched  by  its  standing  in  peace,  its 
progress  in  commerce,  industry,  and  science  promis- 
ing to  raise  it  to  the  plane  of  the  most  advanced 
nations. 

While  little  Japan  was  thus  forging  swiftly  ahead, 
great  China  was  stolidly  holding  back.  This  was 
not  from  lack  of  intelligence  or  the  disposition  to 
avail  itself  of  material  advantages,  but  from  the 


PROGRESS   IN   JAPAN  AND   CHINA.  353 

pride  of  its  people  and  scholars  in  their  own  civiliza- 
tion and  their  belief  in  the  barbarism  of  the  outer 
world.  This  sentiment  was  so  deeply  ingrained  as 
to  make  it  hard  to  eradicate. 

China  was  not  without  its  reformers,  and  such 
progressive  men  as  Li  Hung  Chang  had  their  influ- 
ence. Steamships  made  their  appearance  upon  the 
inland  waters  of  the  empire,  the  telegraph  was  widely 
extended,  and  a  navy  of  modern  war-ships  was 
bought  abroad.  But  the  army,  organized  on  mediae- 
val principles,  went  to  pieces  before  that  of  Japan, 
while  the  ships,  though  their  crews  fought  with 
courage  and  resolution,  proved  unable  to  bear  the 
impact  of  the  better  handled  Japanese  fleet 

Aside  from  its  shipping  and  the  telegraph,  China 
at  that  time  showed  little  disposition  to  accept  mod- 
ern improvements.  The  introduction  of  the  railroad 
was  strongly  resisted,  and  commerce,  industry,  min- 
ing, etc.,  continued  to  be  conducted  by  antiquated 
methods.  Nothing  of  value  seemed  to  have  been 
learned  from  the  war  with.  Japan,  and  even  the 
seizure  of  parts  of  its  territory  by  the  powers  of 
Europe  and  the  threat  to  dismember  and  divide  it  up 
among  these  powers  seemed  insufficient  to  arouse  it 
from  its  sluggish  self-satisfaction. 

Yet  thought  was  stirring  in  the  minds  of  many  of 
the  statesmen  of  China,  and  the  small  band  of  re- 
formers began  to  grow  in  numbers  and  influence. 
The  events  of  the  twentieth  century — the  Boxer  in- 
surrection, the  capture  of  Peking  by  foreign  armies, 
the  retention  of  Manchuria  by  Eussia,  and  above  all 
the  mighty  lesson  of  the  Manchurian  war,  which 


354  HISTORICAL   TALES. 

demonstrated  admirably  the  revolution  which  mod- 
ern methods  had  made  in  Japan — proved  more  than 
even  the  conservatism  of  China  could  endure.  With- 
in the  few  years  since  the  dawn  of  the  twentieth 
century  the  torpid  leviathan  of  the  East  has  shown 
decided  signs  of  awakening.  Most  prominent 
among  these  indications  is  the  fact  that  the  ruling 
empress,  but  recently  a  mainstay  of  the  conservative 
party,  has  entered  the  ranks  of  reform  and  given 
her  imperial  assent  to  radical  changes  in  Chinese 
methods  and  conditions. 

Everywhere  in  China  are  now  visible  indications 
of  the  dawning  of  a  new  era.  The  railroad  is  mak- 
ing its  way  with  encouraging  rapidity  over  the  soil 
of  the  celestial  realm.  New  and  improved  methods 
in  mining  and  manufacture  are  being  adopted.  Other 
evidences  of  progress  in  material  things  are  seen  in 
various  directions.  But  most  promising  of  all  is  the 
fact  that  the  time-honored  method  of  restricting 
education  to  the  ethical  dogmas  of  Confucius  has 
been  overthrown  and  modern  science  is  being  taught 
in  the  schools  and  made  part  of  the  requirements  of 
the  annual  examinations  for  positions  in  the  civil 
service  of  the  empire.  A  new  race  of  scholars  is 
being  made  in  China,  one  which  cannot  fail  to  use  its 
influence  to  bring  that  old  empire  into  the  swing  of 
modern  progress. 

Equally  significant  with  this  revolution  in  the 
system  of  education  is  the  seemingly  coming  change 
in  the  system  of  government.  Statesmen  of  China 
are  now  engaged,  under  the  sanction  of  the  empress, 
in  studying  the  governmental  systems  of  other 


PROGRESS   IN   JAPAN   AND   CHINA.  355 

nations,  with  a  view  of  a  possible  adoption  of 
representative  institutions  and  the  overthrow  of  the 
absolutism  which  has  for  ages  prevailed.  And  this 
is  being  done  at  the  instance  of  the  government 
itself,  nqt  in  response  to  the  demands  of  insistent 
reformers.  Back  of  the  study  of  "Western  methods 
lies  the  power  to  introduce  them,  and  the  proba- 
bility is  that  before  another  generation  has  passed 
China  will  be  classed  among  the  limited  monarchies 
of  the  world,  even  if  it  be  not  admitted  to  the  circle 
of  the  republics. 

These  radical  changes  are  of  very  recent  introduc- 
tion. They  are  results  of  the  developments  of  the 
past  few  years.  But  when  we  see  the  ball  of 
progress  rolling  so  swiftly  and  gathering  new  ma- 
terial so  rapidly,  we  may  well  conjecture  that  before 
many  years  the  China  of  the  past  will  be  buried 
under  its  mass  and  modern  China,  like  modern 
Japan,  take  rank  among  the  most  progressive  nations 
of  the  world. 


